- January 30, 2025
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As Lakewood Ranch’s population continues to grow, medical services have been increasing to keep pace.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital opened a freestanding emergency room on University Parkway in January that can serve up to 150 patients a day. Lakewood Ranch Medical Center is under construction to add another 60 beds to its facility by December, and Exalt Health is opening a 40-bed rehabilitation hospital in 2026.
Those are just some of the facilities that have either opened or are planning to open in the near future in the Lakewood Ranch area.
“For any master-planned community, integrating medical services is essential to fostering a high quality of life,” said Laura Cole, senior vice president of Lakewood Ranch Communities. “Homebuyers, regardless of age or need, consistently prioritize access to healthcare and wellness options when making their decision to move."
Additional facilities can mean more ambulances in service, reduce emergency room waiting times, and can give patients more choices.
The Lakewood Ranch Medical Center has a freestanding ER on Fruitville Road in Sarasota which opened in 2020, and SMH now has a freestanding ER in Lakewood Ranch as well.
Dr. Marshall Frank, medical director for the Sarasota Fire Department, said in many cases, patients have a choice when being loaded into an ambulance ... If the patient’s condition doesn’t dictate where they should go.
He said having more ERs enhances emergency services operations as well.
“(A nearby facility) reduces the time we’re out of service,” Frank said. “The sooner we can get that unit back in service, the sooner it can go to another 911 call.”
Dr. Tara Wendt, medical director at the ER on University Parkway, said the volume of patients SMH sees in its main ER, and where those patients are coming from, drives the decision where to open a freestanding ER.
The hospital opened an ER in North Port in 2009. At that time, it was only the second freestanding ER in the state. Now, the location on University Parkway is the second freestanding ER in Lakewood Ranch.
HCA Florida Healthcare operates the other one on State Road 70 near Interstate 75. It’s one of over 50 freestanding ERs for HCA Healthcare across the state.
Wendt started with Sarasota Memorial about 11 years ago. At the start, she could see a clear delineation in patient volumes between season and non-season. Three years in, she said that delineation was nearly nonexistent.
“The volumes we’re seeing, we’re seeing year round,” Wendt said. “It’s not just a snowbird community anymore.”
The ERs are “continuously full.” Having just opened Jan. 7, the ER on University Parkway is already seeing about 40 patients a day, which is exceeding the hospital’s initial expectations.
Philip Reber, interim CEO at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, said the community is growing so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up with the demand. Phasing its expansion is an example of how the hospital is adapting to a rapidly growing population.
Only three floors of the five-story tower will be used when the tower first opens. The top two floors will remain shells.
Currently the hospital has 120 beds. Each phase of the tower will add 60 beds, doubling that capacity.
Already having a space with plumbing and electricity makes it much easier to expand in the future. At the rate Lakewood Ranch is expanding, Reber anticipates construction on the top two floors to begin within two years of the tower’s opening.
Reber said the hospital is constantly looking for opportunities in the freestanding ER space, as well, because “not everyone that needs health care needs to be admitted to a hospital.”
It’s better to have access points throughout the community, even if the access is via competing health care systems.
“We want to be able to keep Lakewood Ranch patients in Lakewood Ranch,” Reber said. “Every health system has to chip into that growth.”
Both Reber and Wendt stressed that timing is crucial when it comes to clinical outcomes, so additional facilities always benefit patients.
“Think about the volumes of people moving into the area and the strain on the family and internal medicine practitioners locally,” Wendt said. “Freestanding ERs are always available to be used, and many people do use us as primary care.”
The ER includes fast-track bays, specialty rooms for pediatric and behavioral health patients, resuscitation rooms and onsite laboratory and imaging diagnostics.
By means of referrals and patient choice, the health systems work together. Lakewood Ranch Medical Center is already working with Sarasota Memorial’s ER, so patients in need of inpatient treatment can stay in Lakewood Ranch if they so choose.
The hospital and ER offer acute care, which is on-the-spot, short-term treatment.
Last July, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a “high performing hospital” for heart attack care. But if a patient is in need of care post-heart attack, they’re currently referred out of the area for rehabilitation.
Exalt Health broke ground on a $30 million rehabilitation hospital at the intersection of Professional Parkway and Lake Osprey Drive that will offer the post acute care that’s currently missing in Lakewood Ranch.
Reber said the average hospital stay is three to five days. Rehabilitation facilities are for anyone who needs a week or two of hospitalization.
Exalt expects to be seeing patients sometime during the first quarter of 2026. Services will include intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy, along with specialized programs for neurological, orthopedic and cardiac recovery.
“Because so many things in healthcare are time dependent, being able to stay as close to your home as possible is going to be the best thing for you,” Reber said. “Whether that’s heart attacks, strokes, you name it, time is of the essence in a lot of those situations.”
