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Jackson Plans $1.4B Transformation

Jackson Health System has unveiled a $1.4 billion building plan that will transform its aged home campus, improve satellite hospitals and broaden the hospital system’s geographic reach through urgent-care centers, The Miami Herald reports. 

Most of the money -- $1.2 billion -- will be spent on its downtown Miami campus, rebuilding outdated facilities, consolidating emergency services, and reconfiguring the campus to make it easier for people to find their way around.

The Miami Transplant Institute, one of the most profitable programs, will be centralized in a new 108-bed center with an intensive care unit, outpatient clinics, research and faculty offices, the Herald said.  Also in the works are a 120-bed ICU tower; a pediatric outpatient center and a new rehabilitation hospital.

Last fall, voters approved $830 million in public financing for the construction. This is separate from the $350 million a year that the hospital system gets from Miami-Dade through a half-penny sales tax and property taxes. Jackson will have to net $50 million in operating revenue annually to meet the costs of construction.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.