Sarasota Memorial Has Big Expansion Plans
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In a "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" moment, Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System (SMH) is about to expand outside of Sarasota County.
The hospital board recently approved a $60 million deal that will allow SMH to purchase 120 acres of land in Manatee County's S.R. 64 corridor, just east of I-75, as well as a 10-acre adjacent parcel with direct access to S.R. 64. The hospital will work with Manatee County officials and community leaders to rezone the area and create a new hospital campus on the site.
Pending local government and site development approvals, the first phase of the new Manatee campus would include a freestanding emergency department on the 10-acre parcel. Subsequent phases could include primary and specialty physician practices; pediatric specialty care; imaging, diagnostic and laboratory services; and other medical buildings, which would all ultimately support a full-service hospital campus.
Development would occur in phases, with community need and local, regional and state regulatory approvals guiding the process. Hospital leadership did not provide estimated costs for construction or projected opening date.
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Although its name includes the word Sarasota, SMH serves patients in Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties. Its impetus for opening a facility in Manatee County is twofold: population growth and workforce location. Manatee County is projected to experience a 9.6 growth in population over the next five years, with the biggest concentration happening in Parrish, Palmetto and Lakewood Ranch in and around the S.R. 64 corridor. In 2025, Manatee residents patients accounted for approximately 25 percent of SMH's overall patient volume.
Additionally, the hospital says, about 30 percent of its workforce lives in Manatee County. Hospital officials say the new campus would also help relieve capacity pressure at SMH's Sarasota campuses, allowing patients to receive general and specialty care closer to home.
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“County boundaries do not define where patients seek care or where healthcare professionals choose to live and work,” SMH CEO David Verinder said in a statement. “Our responsibility is to plan for the communities we already serve today and the communities we know will continue to grow tomorrow.”
Hospital board chair Kevin Cooper added that purchasing land before development accelerates is part of the board's responsibility to support the community's long-term healthcare needs.
Image: Courtesy Photo
SMH Is Expanding in Venice, Too
But wait, there's more.
In addition to the Manatee County facility and SMH's $507 million, full-service hospital in North Port, the hospital board has also approved plans for a new outpatient cancer center in Venice—part of of the ongoing expansion of SMH's Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute, which opened in 2020 to provide treatment, access to clinical trials and support service to people diagnosed with cancer.
SMH leadership says that the volume of patients seeking cancer care services in the region has led to the continued expansion of the Jellison Institute.
Currently, plans for the new facility include a radiation oncology center and medical, surgical and radiation oncology physician clinics on the first floor. Patients also will have access to infusion services, diagnostic imaging other care services. The second floor will be shelled for future growth, and the third floor will house an endoscopy center and a team of gastroenterologists from SMH's First Physicians Group.
Preliminary work has already begun on the site; pending permitting and construction approvals, SMH plans to complete the build-out in 2028.
