UF Health will expand critical care services with a new 911-receiving, freestanding E.R. on Southwest Archer Road: the UF Health Shands Emergency Center at Kanapaha. The 10,000-square-foot facility with 11 exam rooms and three fast-track rooms will be located about 2.5 miles west of I-75, near Tower Road. Construction begins this fall and it will open in the fall of 2016.

Like the UF Health Shands Emergency Center at Springhill, Kanapaha providers will be linked closely to the hospital-based critical care teams and can provide direct and immediate access to comprehensive services at UF Health Shands Hospital.

The Springhill team has served more than 40,000 patient visits since opening in August 2013. Patients report consistently high satisfaction with the quality medical care, breadth of physician services and expertise, and attentive and skilled nursing and hospitality — in addition to reasonable wait times.

The UF Health Shands Emergency Center at Kanapaha will be larger than Springhill, with at least 10 treatment spaces, an onsite lab and diagnostic radiology services, including X-ray and CT imaging. It will be staffed by board-certified UF College of Medicine emergency medicine physicians and critical-care nurses and support staff associated with UF Health, along with all the resources of our academic health center.

Keep up with construction of this project and others at blueprints.UFHealth.org.