New 99-Bed UF Health Hospital Opens at Durbin Park, Bringing Full-Service Care to North St. Johns

St. Johns County has a new full-service hospital. UF Health officially opened its Durbin Park campus this week, giving families in the county's fast-growing northern corridor a 99-bed hospital with a round-the-clock emergency room, six operating rooms and cardiac catheterization services, all located off State Road 9B just minutes from Interstate 95.

UF Health and University of Florida leaders held a ceremonial ribbon-cutting on Sept. 17, and the hospital began seeing patients on Sept. 22. The five-story, 220,000-square-foot building sits on 42.5 acres and is the centerpiece of a campus that also includes a 72,000-square-foot medical office building for outpatient specialty care.

For residents who currently drive to Jacksonville for anything beyond routine care, the new campus changes the math. The hospital's emergency department is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the building includes two endoscopy suites, interventional radiology and private inpatient rooms designed, UF Health says, to make recovery more comfortable.

What's inside

The adjacent medical office building will phase in outpatient specialty services in the coming weeks, according to UF Health. Planned offerings include:

• Ear, nose and throat (ENT)
• General surgery and gynecology
• Heart and vascular care
• Neurology and neurosurgery
• Orthopaedics and pain management
• Rehabilitation services and urology
• Laboratory services

UF Health St. Johns president Wayne Marshall said the campus is meant to keep patients close to home for care they once had to travel for. He said residents who once traveled significant distances for specialty care, surgery or inpatient treatment can now get that care locally while still benefiting from the research and clinical expertise of the state's flagship academic health system.

University of Florida Board of Trustees chair Mori Hosseini described the opening as more than a new building. He called it a long-term commitment to the region, framing the project as part of UF Health's broader push into Northeast Florida alongside UF Health Jacksonville, UF Health North and UF Health Flagler Hospital.

A county racing to keep up with growth

The new hospital did not open in isolation. Baptist Health opened a new emergency department the same week at its SilverLeaf medical campus about 10 miles south, in a facility that first partially opened in June with doctor's offices and other services. AdventHealth opened a 12-bed freestanding emergency room near State Road 207 east of I-95 earlier this year, and behavioral health provider Acadia Health recently opened a facility near County Road 210 and I-95.

The timing tracks with the county's population curve. St. Johns County has grown roughly 25% since 2020, making it one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, and county officials say healthcare has become one of the area's fastest-growing employment sectors. UF Health is already the county's second-largest employer, with more than 1,500 local workers, and the Durbin Park campus is expected to add more jobs as its outpatient services come online.

County Economic Development Director Christine Valliere said two new healthcare facilities opening in the same week shows how quickly the county's economy is evolving, with medical care becoming a bigger piece of the local job base alongside the new housing and schools that have followed the population boom.

UF Health has not released a date for when every specialty listed for the medical office building will be fully staffed and taking appointments. The system says services there will roll out in phases in the weeks ahead.

For more on this and other healthcare updates in the county, visit St. Johns Community Website, follow along on Facebook, or join the conversation in our Community Forum. You can also read more healthcare stories from around St. Johns County.