{"id":269581,"date":"2026-05-13T15:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269581\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:43:08","slug":"hca-florida-st-lucie-hospital-opens-new-6-story-parking-garage-to-improve-patient-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269581\/","title":{"rendered":"HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital opens new 6-story parking garage to improve patient access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital has opened a new 6-story parking garage with 667 spaces and 13 electric vehicle charging stations, ending a parking shortage that had patients leaving cars along curbs and in the grass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;This has been a need here for several years,&#8221; said Rahat Verma, Chief Operating Officer at HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATCH WPTV&#8217;S COVERAGE BELOW:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Garage parking comes at no cost to visitors. The addition is more than a convenience. Hospital officials say easier access directly affects patient outcomes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;In moments where they need care critically, they&#8217;re being able to come in efficiently and see top-class providers,&#8221; explained Verma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Patients on social media expressed relief at the news. It was not uncommon, they said, to arrive at the hospital and find no available parking as the facility has seen a noticeable surge in demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;In 2026 alone, we&#8217;re seeing a 20 percent increase in admissions, as we touched before, deliveries more than doubling from the previous year,&#8221; Verma said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The parking garage is part of a broader expansion at the hospital, which has also added more beds and a new labor and delivery suite. Verma confirmed that even more growth is on the way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve already started our campus master plans iterations, which are going to add a future tower to this campus &#8230; so that folks don&#8217;t have to travel far for care,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The new garage reflects a hospital working to keep pace with a growing community&#8217;s healthcare needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital has opened a new 6-story parking garage with 667 spaces and 13 electric&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-269581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}