With demand for inpatient rehabilitation services on a continual climb, Brooks Rehabilitation plans a $26 million expansion at its 2-year-old Bartram Park hospital on Jacksonville’s Southside.
The project comes on the heels of an $11 million addition at Brooks‘ main University Boulevard campus in 2023.
The two facilities combined served 4,095 patients last year, compared to 3,362 in 2022, according to Brooks, and the added beds will allow them to handle about 1,000 more patients between them.
“These expansions reinforce our continued commitment to address the increasing demand for, and access to, specialized inpatient rehabilitation services in the region,” President and CEO Doug Baer said.
Such hospitals help patients recover from stroke, spinal cord or brain injury, cancer and organ transplants, among other things. They are typically referred there after stays in acute care hospitals, but some come directly from the community.
Population growth and hospital deregulation in Florida, which eliminated a lengthy state certificate-of-need process that also allowed competitors to protest applications, spurred a “building boom” in both rehabilitation and acute care hospitals in Northeast Florida.