Baptist Health has begun to transform the healthcare landscape of western Broward County with the official groundbreaking of its Sunrise hospital.
The $500 million hospital marks a significant expansion into Broward County for the not-for-profit organization, which has spent over a decade building its outpatient presence. The new seven-story Sunrise hospital bordering the Sawgrass Expressway also represents just one component of Baptist Health’s aggressive growth strategy into Broward and Palm Beach counties. In Broward, construction is already underway on a large new medical center in Pembroke Pines that will include an emergency room, specialty physicians’ offices, and an outpatient surgery center. Baptist’s plans in Palm Beach County include continuing to expand by adding to its existing hospitals, building a new proton therapy center for cancer patients at Boca Regional Hospital, expanding outpatient services in Wellington, and adding beds at its Bethesda West hospital.
Building on a foundation laid in Miami-Dade over 60 years ago, Baptist Health South Florida sees significant expansion potential in the booming markets to the north.
“As we find locations that we feel would work well for serving more residents of Broward and Palm Beach County, we’re going to do that,” said Bo Boulenger, Baptist Health president and CEO.
Baptist Health Sunrise will be the health network’s most innovative hospital, featuring a unique layout, with a medical office building integrated into the hospital and a structure designed to accommodate growth. It will open with 100 inpatient beds, a 30-bed emergency department — and plenty of room to expand on its 26 acres of land. It also includes the latest technology — robotic surgical equipment and AI-enabled imaging. The hospital will be fully integrated with Baptist Health’s specialty services, which include cancer care, orthopedic care, cardiovascular care, and brain and spine care
“Since it is a 100-bed hospital, I think we do have the flexibility to be able to do innovative things there,” said Ana Lopez-Blazquez, Baptist Health executive vice president and chief strategy officer. “We have the capability to grow it. We could add another 100 beds if needed. We have already designed how surgery would grow, how the emergency department would grow, how some of the support services would grow.”
Baptist Health executives and Sunrise city commissioners pose for photos on Wednesday during a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Baptist Health Sunrise Hospital. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
For Sunrise residents, the new hospital fills a critical gap. Currently, Sunrise residents must travel at least 5 miles to facilities such as the Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital or HCA Florida Westside Hospital in Plantation to be admitted. The city of Sunrise officials said they recognized the need for healthcare and sold the land to Baptist Health for a hospital rather than to residential or commercial developers.
“Our city has been a medical desert, a hospital desert, and we always envisioned the opportunity that someone would come along and fill that gap,” Sunrise mayor Mike Ryan said at the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday.
Sunrise Fire Chief John McNamara said his emergency responders look forward to bringing residents to a hospital in their own community. And, with the hospital in the city, Sunrise emergency vehicles will be back in service faster after each turnaround, he said. He believes residents in other cities will benefit, too.
“It’s very strategically placed for the neighboring communities around us to take advantage of it as well,” McNamara said. “I think Baptist did wisely in choosing this location.”
In a move toward environmental responsibility and disaster resilience, the new hospital — scheduled to open in mid-2029 — will feature a massive solar panel array and conservation easements. Notably, the facility’s “Energy Center” — with critical boilers, chillers and electrical equipment — will be encased in a protective concrete bunker rather than on the roof.
“We are basically self-sustainable for about six to seven days post any kind of hurricane or disaster,” Lopez-Blazquez said. “Sunrise will be Florida’s first all-electric medical facility … we’re really proud to be able to do this since it’s so close to the Everglades.”
Baptist Health broke ground on Jan. 28 on a new hospital in Sunrise with 100 beds and an emergency room. (Baptist Health South Florida/Courtesy)
More Baptist Health growth
Further south in Broward, construction began in April on Baptist’s three-story medical facility in Pembroke Pines. When it opens in early 2027, it will include a standalone emergency department, primary care, and specialized institutes for cardiology and neurology. Baptist already has a medical center in Plantation, just north of Interstate 595 and Pine Island Road, that houses an urgent care, orthopedics and sports medicine, and oncology services.
The next expansion in Broward likely will be to the north, Lopez said. “We are looking to expand in certain areas in the future in Northwest Broward County. I think that if the communities in Broward continue to grow, then Baptist will continue to evaluate community needs,” she said.
For the last decade, Baptist has been buying land in South Florida and continues to do so.
“That’s the scarcest resource that limits development of any kind.. So, if there is an opportunity in markets that we see a future need, we are very fortunate to have the resources and the foresight, and we do have land banks, not specifically in Broward, but in Palm Beach and in Miami-Dade County,” Lopez-Blazquez said.
In Palm Beach County, Baptist Health is focused on modernizing Boca Raton Regional Hospital and expanding Bethesda Hospital West in Boynton Beach to meet the needs of the growing population.
At Boca Raton Regional, a new nine-story, 427,000-square-foot tower is expected to open this summer with all-private patient rooms, 20 high-tech operating rooms (including hybrid suites), and a new intensive care unit. Expansion also is underway at the Boca Raton hospital to enhance specialized care for strokes, spine disorders, and epilepsy patients. That is in addition to a recently opened facility on the campus dedicated to outpatient surgery.
“Orthopedics is going to be a big growth area there for us,” Lopez-Blazquez said. “And then the Lynn Cancer Institute, we’re going to continue to grow that.” Already, the new proton therapy center at the Lynn Cancer Institute on the Boca Regional campus has broken ground, and will include exam rooms, physician offices and the treatment room where targeted radiation will be delivered.
Lopez-Blazquez said Baptist also sees future development at Bethesda West, where its 80-bed Boynton Beach hospital currently operates at 100% occupancy. “We do have land and we do have the opportunity to grow that hospital,” she said.
In Royal Palm Beach, Baptist bought the former Toys ’R’ Us site along State Road 7 to build a 35,000-square-foot medical center with a 20-bed emergency room and medical office space. It will be the village’s first 24-hour emergency room.
In West Boca, Baptist has opened a 24-hour emergency care center at Mission Bay Plaza.
Another area of opportunity has been Wellington, Lopez-Blazquez said. “We are developing large outpatient facilities.”
A reponse to medical needs
Boulenger, Baptist’s CEO, said his organization’s expansion of hospitals and health facilities in South Florida is driven by need. “As we all know, a lot of people are moving to the state of Florida, from other states, and we also have the aging of all of us baby boomers. About 10,000 people a day turn 65 and age into the baby boomer age class, and people are living longer,” he said. “So, there’s a dramatic increase in demand for healthcare.”
Although Baptist plans to open its new Sunrise hospital in summer 2029, Boulenger said he already sees interest from employees who want to work there.
“We have about 3,000 Baptist Health employees who live in Broward County, and there are a lot of them who are very excited that there’s an opportunity for them to work closer to home,” he said. “Also what we find when we open something new, everybody wants to work. Who doesn’t want to help open a new hospital for the community? It’s just really exciting.”
Beyond bricks and mortar, Lopez-Blazquez said Baptist is also investing in modernizing its processes. To ensure seamless connectivity across all its hospitals, Baptist is dedicating $500 million to transition to Epic, a sophisticated electronic records system that allows doctors to access patient data in real-time
Baptist Health Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Ana Lopez-Blazquez speaks during a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony for the new Baptist Health Sunrise Hospital on Wednesday. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
As a not-for-profit, Lopez-Blazquez emphasizes, “Our owners are the community. We don’t have shareholders who we have to pay a return to, so it allows us to take a very long-term view. We are here to do the right thing for the community and provide for their needs.”
That means more expansion into neighborhoods with urgent-care centers, surgery centers, and freestanding emergency departments, Boulenger said.
“What we learned during COVID is people didn’t necessarily want to come to a big, busy hospital. They wanted convenient outpatient care close to home,” he said. “Where we feel like the travel time is too far for people, we’re going to continue to build convenient outpatient locations for them.”
Boulenger has big expectations for the new Sunrise hospital.
“If you’re having a heart attack or a stroke or you’re in an accident, you’ll get a much higher level of service than ever seen before in Sunrise,” he said. “We’re really delighted to bring Baptist Health in a larger, more meaningful way to Broward County. And I think it’s probably just going to be the beginning.”
South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.