The doors opened and doctors started seeing patients Monday at Lakeland Regional Health’s newest location: a three-story, $65 million facility on 20.6 acres at Kathleen Road and Interstate Highway 4.

The new 76,000-square-foot center has 52 state-of-the-art patient exam rooms and four procedure rooms. It offers primary care, family medicine, lab services and specialty care services in neurology, pulmonology, urology, general surgery and trauma, infectious disease and endocrinology. It also houses LRH’s new graduate medical education program.

The Kathleen Road campus is part of the hospital board’s plans to expand services and service areas, increase the number of physicians on staff and provide specialized care for which people have had to leave the county in the past.

An urgent care center is scheduled to open in the next few months for things like minor injuries, infections and viruses. A freestanding emergency department is also planned, which will treat things like broken bones and more acute illnesses. For issues needing surgery, the main hospital will be a quick ambulance ride away.

Source:  lkld now