Orlando (Fla.) Health is partnering with Lakeland, Fla.-based Watson Clinic on a new hospital set to open in June 2026.
The Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital will feature more than 300 inpatient beds and 69 emergency and observation beds, according to a March 11 Orlando Health news release.
The facility will include 11 operating rooms, four cardiac and interventional suites and an 18-bed intensive care unit, which will ultimately accommodate 36 patients at full build-out. Obstetric care will be a key focus, with plans for eight labor and delivery rooms, two C-section operating rooms and more than 25 postpartum rooms. A 12-bed neonatal intensive care unit will open shortly after the hospital begins operations.
The project represents one of the largest hospital capital investments in Orlando Health’s history, Carlos Carrasco, senior vice president for the system’s Midwest region, said in the release. It is expected to create more than 1,500 new jobs.
This comes as the system plans to close the 298-bed Rockledge Hospital and four hospital-based outpatient departments on April 22. Orlando Health acquired the hospital from Dallas-based Steward Health Care in October, and “years of neglect” left it in such poor condition that it did not meet the system’s standards for patient care, according to a previous Orlando Health news release.
Watson Clinic includes more than 200 physicians representing more than 40 medical and surgical specialties.
