Northside welcomes UF Health

North Jacksonville is finished being last.

It was the last part of the city to see economic development, the last to see major residential growth. It was the only section of Jacksonville without its own major medical complex. But times have changed.

UF Health North, a medical complex opening its doors in early 2015, is part of a new era in North Jacksonville. Today the area bustles with business in its River City Marketplace, and — with the city’s fastest-growing population — it has a number of residential communities in the works. The addition of UF Health North will provide unprecedented access to the most modern medical services available.

UF Health North will house North Jacksonville’s first birthing center, with the comforts of home, oversized whirlpool tubs for labor and water births, and the care of dedicated mid wives. Its technology – from medical equipment to electronics-friendly patient rooms and waiting areas – is unparalleled anywhere in the city. It will feature the first open MRI machine in North Jacksonville, serving patients regardless of age or size and providing open space for additional comfort. And it will be one of the only medical facilities in Northeast Florida capable of tomography, which is 3-dimensional breast imaging that shows radiographers a more complete view of breast tissue.

And that’s just the beginning.

UF Health North will give the community a completely different idea of what medical services should be. Even the look and feel of the facility itself will be unprecedented. Instead of cookie-cutter whitewashed walls, straight-backed waiting room chairs and florescent lighting, the facility is designed to feel more like a cozy lounge.

Picture this:

• Waiting areas will have plush couches with built-in sites to plug in and charge electronics.
• The changing areas where patients prepare for imaging like mammograms will be large furnished rooms looking privately onto Japanese maple trees in outdoor spaces in the middle of the facility.
• There will be natural light wells in the center of the 200,000-square-foot building, creating a bright, healing effect.
• Any window providing a view of the roof will show lush greenscape.
• There is even a second-story veranda where patients and visitors can step outside and take in the beautiful view.
• Color schemes and artwork will reflect the bright, beautiful look of North Florida’s marshlands.

North Jacksonville business leaders say UF Health North is highly anticipated by the community, which supported efforts to bring the complex and future hospital to the area after another hospital protested plans to build it. The hospital bed tower portion of UF Health North will open in 2017. The tower will add 92 beds for inpatient services.

Christina Dolson McLaughlin, branch manager of Synovus Bank in River City Marketplace, said the bank’s staff passed around petitions in support of the facility.

“We knew it was going to be great for the area and we all feel like we had a hand in helping it come here,” she said.

Jacksonville Aviation Authority CEO Steve Grossman said he is especially pleased that the complex will include adult and pediatric emergency services.

“This area has been very underserved from a medical standpoint. When we have an incident here at the airport, we have to transport the patient downtown, and that takes 20 to 25 minutes,” he said. “Having a facility five minutes away will literally save lives.”

He said the area’s economy skyrocketed with the arrival of the large River City shopping complex, but a medical complex says more about community.

“To have an entity like UF Health fight so hard to come to the Northside, to see that level of commitment, that really means something to the residents up here,” he said. “This is a big deal. This is a sign of growth. It’s something the Northside has been waiting for for a long time.”