{"id":444851,"date":"2026-02-02T15:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444851\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:54:10","slug":"baptist-healths-big-plans-for-broward-and-palm-beach-counties-sun-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444851\/","title":{"rendered":"Baptist Health\u2019s big plans for Broward and Palm Beach counties \u2013 Sun Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baptist Health has begun to transform the healthcare landscape of western Broward County with the official groundbreaking of its Sunrise hospital.<\/p>\n

The $500 million hospital marks a significant expansion into Broward County for the not-for-profit organization, which has spent over a decade building its outpatient presence. The new seven-story Sunrise hospital<\/a> bordering the Sawgrass Expressway also represents just one component of Baptist Health\u2019s aggressive growth strategy into Broward and Palm Beach counties. In Broward, construction is already underway on a large new medical center in Pembroke Pines that will include an emergency room, specialty physicians\u2019 offices, and an outpatient surgery center. Baptist\u2019s plans in Palm Beach County include continuing to expand by adding to its existing hospitals, building a new proton therapy center for cancer patients at Boca Regional Hospital, expanding outpatient services in Wellington, and adding beds at its Bethesda West hospital.<\/p>\n

Building on a foundation laid in Miami-Dade over 60 years ago, Baptist Health South Florida sees significant expansion potential in the booming markets to the north.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we find locations that we feel would work well for serving more residents of Broward and Palm Beach County, we\u2019re going to do that,\u201d said Bo Boulenger, Baptist Health president and CEO.<\/p>\n

Baptist Health Sunrise will be the health network\u2019s most innovative hospital, featuring a unique layout<\/a>, with a medical office building integrated into the hospital and a structure designed to accommodate growth. It will open with 100 inpatient beds, a 30-bed emergency department \u2014 and plenty of room to expand on its 26 acres of land. \u00a0It also includes the latest technology \u2014 robotic surgical equipment and AI-enabled imaging. The hospital will be fully integrated with Baptist Health\u2019s specialty services, which include cancer care, orthopedic care, cardiovascular care, and brain and spine care<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it is a 100-bed hospital, I think we do have the flexibility to be able to do innovative things there,\u201d said Ana Lopez-Blazquez, Baptist Health executive vice president and chief strategy officer. \u201cWe have the capability to grow it. We could add another 100 beds if needed. We have already designed how surgery would grow, how the emergency department would grow, how some of the support services would grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BaptistBaptist Health executives and Sunrise city commissioners pose for photos on Wednesday during a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Baptist Health Sunrise Hospital. (Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

For Sunrise residents, the new hospital fills a critical gap. Currently, Sunrise residents must travel at least 5 miles to facilities such as the Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital or \u00a0HCA Florida Westside Hospital in Plantation\u00a0to be admitted. The city of Sunrise officials said they recognized the need for healthcare and sold the land to Baptist Health for a hospital rather than to residential or commercial developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city has been a medical desert, a hospital desert, and we always envisioned the opportunity that someone would come along and fill that gap,\u201d Sunrise mayor Mike Ryan said at the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Sunrise Fire Chief John McNamara said his emergency responders look forward to bringing residents to a hospital in their own community. And, with the hospital in the city, Sunrise emergency vehicles will be back in service faster after each turnaround, he said. He believes residents in other cities will benefit, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very strategically placed for the neighboring communities around us to take advantage of it as well,\u201d McNamara said. \u201cI think Baptist did wisely in choosing this location.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a move toward environmental responsibility and disaster resilience, the new hospital \u2014 scheduled to open in mid-2029 \u2014 will feature a massive solar panel array and conservation easements. Notably, the facility\u2019s \u201cEnergy Center\u201d \u2014 with critical boilers, chillers and electrical equipment \u2014 will be encased in a protective concrete bunker rather than on the roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are basically self-sustainable for about six to seven days post any kind of hurricane or disaster,\u201d Lopez-Blazquez said. \u201cSunrise will be Florida\u2019s first all-electric medical facility \u2026 we\u2019re really proud to be able to do this since it\u2019s so close to the Everglades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BaptistBaptist Health broke ground on Jan. 28 on a new hospital in Sunrise with 100 beds and an emergency room. (Baptist Health South Florida\/Courtesy)
\nMore Baptist Health growth<\/p>\n

Further south in Broward, construction began in April on Baptist\u2019s three-story medical facility in Pembroke Pines.\u00a0 When it opens in early 2027, it will include a standalone emergency department, primary care, and specialized institutes for cardiology and neurology. Baptist already has a medical center in Plantation, just north of Interstate 595 and Pine Island Road, that houses an urgent care, orthopedics and sports medicine, and oncology services.<\/p>\n

The next expansion in Broward likely will be to the north, Lopez said. \u201cWe are looking to expand in certain areas in the future in Northwest Broward County. I think that if the communities in Broward continue to grow, then Baptist will continue to evaluate community needs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For the last decade,\u00a0 Baptist has been buying land in South Florida and continues to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the scarcest resource that limits development of any kind.. So, if there is an opportunity in markets that we see a future need, we are very fortunate to have the resources and the foresight, and we do have land banks, not specifically in Broward, but in Palm Beach and in Miami-Dade County,\u201d Lopez-Blazquez said.<\/p>\n

In Palm Beach County, Baptist Health is focused on modernizing Boca Raton Regional Hospital and expanding Bethesda Hospital West in Boynton Beach to meet the needs of the growing population.<\/p>\n

At Boca Raton Regional, a new nine-story, 427,000-square-foot tower is expected to open this summer with all-private patient rooms, 20 high-tech operating rooms (including hybrid suites), and a new intensive care unit. Expansion also is underway at the Boca Raton hospital to enhance specialized care for strokes, spine disorders, and epilepsy patients. That is in addition to a recently opened facility on the campus dedicated to outpatient surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrthopedics is going to be a big growth area there for us,\u201d Lopez-Blazquez said. \u201cAnd then the Lynn Cancer Institute, we\u2019re going to continue to grow that.\u201d Already, the new proton therapy center at the Lynn Cancer Institute on the Boca Regional campus has broken ground, and will include exam rooms, physician offices and the treatment room where targeted radiation will be delivered.<\/p>\n

Lopez-Blazquez said Baptist also sees future development at Bethesda West, where its 80-bed Boynton Beach hospital currently operates at 100% occupancy. \u201cWe do have land and we do have the opportunity to grow that hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In Royal Palm Beach, Baptist bought the former Toys \u2019R\u2019 Us site along State Road 7 to build a 35,000-square-foot medical center with a 20-bed emergency room and medical office space. It will be the village\u2019s first 24-hour emergency room.<\/p>\n

In West Boca, Baptist has opened a 24-hour emergency care center<\/a> at Mission Bay Plaza.<\/p>\n

Another area of opportunity has been Wellington, Lopez-Blazquez said. \u201cWe are developing large outpatient facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A reponse to medical needs<\/p>\n

Boulenger, Baptist\u2019s CEO, said his organization\u2019s expansion of hospitals and health facilities in South Florida is driven by need. \u201cAs we all know, a lot of people are moving to the state of Florida, from other states, and we also have the aging of all of us baby boomers. About 10,000 people a day turn 65 and age into the baby boomer age class, and people are living longer,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, there\u2019s a dramatic increase in demand for healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Baptist plans to open its new Sunrise hospital in summer 2029, Boulenger said he already sees interest from employees who want to work there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have about 3,000 Baptist Health employees who live in Broward County, and there are a lot of them who are very excited that there\u2019s an opportunity for them to work closer to home,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso what we find when we open something new, everybody wants to work. Who doesn\u2019t want to help open a new hospital for the community?\u00a0 It\u2019s just really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond bricks and mortar, Lopez-Blazquez said Baptist is also investing in modernizing its processes. To ensure seamless connectivity across all its hospitals, Baptist is dedicating $500 million to transition to Epic, a sophisticated electronic records system that allows doctors to access patient data in real-time<\/p>\n

\"BaptistBaptist Health Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Ana Lopez-Blazquez speaks during a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony for the new Baptist Health Sunrise Hospital on Wednesday. (Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

As a not-for-profit, Lopez-Blazquez emphasizes, \u201cOur owners are the community. We don\u2019t have shareholders who we have to pay a return to, so it allows us to take a very long-term view. We are here to do the right thing for the community and provide for their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means more expansion into neighborhoods with urgent-care centers, surgery centers, and freestanding emergency departments, Bolenger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we learned during COVID is people didn\u2019t necessarily want to come to a big, busy hospital. They wanted convenient outpatient care close to home,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere we feel like the travel time is too far for people,\u00a0 we\u2019re going to continue to build convenient outpatient locations for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolenger has big expectations for the new Sunrise hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re having a heart attack or a stroke or you\u2019re in an accident, you\u2019ll get a much higher level of service than ever seen before in Sunrise,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re really delighted to bring Baptist Health in a larger, more meaningful way to Broward County.\u00a0And I think it\u2019s probably just going to be the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baptist Health has begun to transform the healthcare landscape of western Broward County with the official groundbreaking of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[8019,2808,97,252,253,2558,983,31040,3,37652,5262],"class_list":{"0":"post-444851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-broward-county","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-miami-dade-county","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-palm-beach-county","18":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}