Doctors Hospital expects to soon open new emergency room in booming East Manatee

More health care options and choices for consumers and patients are coming to East Manatee.

Nearly two years after requesting site plan approval to build an 11,000-square-foot emergency room at 5800 State Road 70 East near Lakewood Ranch, Doctors Hospital of Sarasota is looking forward to a March 26 opening.

The new $9 million facility, called Doctors Hospital of Sarasota ER in Lakewood Ranch, will provide 24-hour, seven-day-a-week board certified emergency physician coverage, along with X-ray, CT scan, ultrasound and laboratory services.

Treatment rooms will be private, and there will be a separate, dedicated pediatric waiting area. About one-quarter of the patients are expected to be 17 or younger.

Doctors Hospital decided to build in the area based on customer surveys that indicated residents were excited and enthusiastic about new emergency services, according to hospital officials.

There are 100,000 emergency room visits a year in that catchment area, Robert C. Meade, chief executive officer of Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, said Tuesday.

“There is a significant amount of growth along the I-75 corridor and particularly in that area,” Meade said of the decision about where and when to open his hospital’s first satellite facility.

“There is a lot of excitement about the new ER,” he said. “It creates an access point for our hospital that has been much needed. We do a really good job from an efficiency and quality perspective in our ER in the hospital, and I think people in other areas would like to see us duplicate that.”

As a stand-alone emergency room, the new facility will provide the same services and level of care as in the ER at Doctors Hospital of Sarasota at 5731 Bee Ridge Road.

The facility will employ about 40 staff, including nurses, paramedics, radiology technicians, security guards, lab techs, pharmacy techs and housekeepers. The economic impact is estimated at more than $4 million.

The new Doctors Hospital ER is located about six miles from Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, at 8330 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., and 5.5 miles from Health Care Center at Heritage Harbour at 1040 River Heritage Blvd.

Several health care providers now have a stake in East Manatee. Lakewood Ranch Medical Center is owned and operated by Universal Health Services, also the parent company of Manatee Memorial Hospital. Doctors Hospital is owned by Hospital Corporation of America. Sarasota Memorial Hospital is a community hospital, governed by a nine-member elected Sarasota County Public Hospital Board.

For more information about Doctors Hospital of Sarasota ER in Lakewood Ranch, visit https://doctorsofsarasota.com/service/a-new-er-coming-soon.

This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Doctors Hospital expects to soon open new emergency room in booming East Manatee."