Construction Begins on Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion

Orlando, FL (February 22, 2024) – A new era of unparalleled healthcare for children is unfolding at Orlando Health’s downtown campus with the groundbreaking ceremony for the Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion.

The new facility will serve as an essential link between the time a patient spends in the hospital and the follow-up care needed. The Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion is a $160 million endeavor that will bring more than 30 pediatric specialty services under one roof. Overlooking downtown’s Lake Beauty Park on the Orlando Health campus, the six-story Children’s Pavilion will encompass 189,000 square feet of space dedicated to the treatment of children. In addition, clinical space in the Children’s Pavilion was designed with ultimate flexibility in mind, allowing not only to meet the needs of today, but for years to come. Finally, the Children’s Pavilion will also house additional space for future service expansion and a new parking structure with 800 spaces.

“This is a major milestone for our community and the original vision of the great Arnold Palmer, who always believed we could do better in caring for our children,” said John Bozard, senior vice president Orlando Health and president of the Orlando Health Foundation. “The Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion is a testament to the culture of philanthropy that has made this community a leader in healthcare.”

One of the primary benefits of the Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion is it will bring services that are currently geographically dispersed into a central point of service that will make the lives of the families seeking care much easier to navigate, saving them time to focus on what really matters—getting the care they need.

“Having all the doctors and specialists we need to see under one roof in a new building dedicated to giving children like mine and many others the care they need is game-changing,” said Laura Freeland, the mother of twins who were the youngest NICU children at the time they were born [NEED TO FACT CHECK]. “This new facility will minimize the overwhelming burdens that come with caring for a medically complex child, or in our case children. Orlando Health is putting more than 30 pediatric specialties in one place. Parents will only have to load and unload their children and their medical equipment once, even if they need to see four or five physicians. We are very very excited about this.”

The Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion is another milestone during an era of evolution over the last two-decades that has seen the Orlando Health campus blossom with new facilities dedicated to care. “The transformative impact the Children’s Pavilion will have on our campus and for the families seeking treatment with multiple specialists can’t be overstated; having a centralized point of care instead of navigating multiple offices will vastly improve the patient experience.” said Justin Williams, interim president Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. “This marks the beginning of a transformative journey in pediatric healthcare that will have a profound impact on Central Florida.”

According to Pediatric Gastroenterologist Dr. Jeffrey Bornstein, Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, the new building is about the care of our most important resource—children. “Children are our most precious resource, and ensuring their health and happiness is a cause that transcends individual interests,” said Dr. Bornstein. “This healthcare facility is not just a building; it is a promise to every parent who walks through our doors seeking solace and to every child battling illness that they will receive the best care possible.”

Orlando Health President and CEO David Strong also praised the promise of the new Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion and the “accessibility of care” that it will provide to patients. “This new building will aid Orlando Health in delivering the very best healthcare to our youngest patients by dramatically increasing the accessibility of care to the next generation and beyond.”

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a not-for-profit healthcare organization with $9.6 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.

Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for Central Florida’s only pediatric and adult Level I Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level II Adult Trauma Center in Pinellas County. It is the home of one of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care units, one of the only systems in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows.

The 3,429-bed system includes 32 hospitals and emergency departments – 26 of which are currently operational with six coming soon. The system also includes nine specialty institutes, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility under the management of Acadia Healthcare, and more than 375 outpatient facilities that include physician clinics, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with FastMed Urgent Care. More than 4,950 physicians, representing more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 29,000 team members and more than 1,400 physicians.

In FY 23, Orlando Health cared for 197,000 inpatients and 6.6 million outpatients.  The healthcare system provided nearly $1.3 billion in total impact to the communities it serves in the form of community benefit programs and services, Medicare shortfalls, bad debt, community-building activities and capital investments in FY 22, the most recent period for which this information is available.

Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.