The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has withdrawn its support of Shands Jacksonville to build a 100-bed hospital on the North side, reports Jacksonville.com.
In December 2011, AHCA had issued a provisional certificate for construction of Shands Jacksonville North on Duval Road across from the Riverside Marketplace. But Memorial Hospital appealed the decision.
Last December, administrative law Judge W. David Watkins of Tallahassee recommended that because the presence of that new hospital could cost Memorial $3.5 million to $4.9 million a year, the state should not allow the hospital to be built. Officials with the state health care agency recently decided to abide by Watkins’ recommendation.
In a statement, Shands spokesman Dan Leveton said Shands will move ahead “with our plan to build a new medical office complex on the same site, which will include ambulatory services and a medical office building for University of Florida faculty and community physicians.
The complex will include primary and specialty care, diagnostic services, urgent care and outpatient surgery and construction will begin in the near future.”
Those projects do not require state approval.
The statement also said: “Today we are considering all of our options as we move forward.”
