Fla. To Get New Rehab Hospital

OCALA, Fla. — Inpatient rehabilitative healthcare services provider HealthSouth Corp. received permission from the state to build a comprehensive physical rehabilitation hospital in Ocala.

The $21 million, 40-bed Ocala Rehabilitation Hospital of Marion County will provide comprehensive physical rehabilitation to patients who have experienced stroke, trauma, brain and orthopedic injuries and other major illness and injuries.

Construction on the 49,900-square foot hospital is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2011. The proposed comprehensive physical rehabilitation hospital will include 40 all-private rooms, an on-site therapy gym and rehabilitation technologies. Once fully operational, the hospital is expected to create 112 full-time jobs.

With 81,000 residents over the age of 65, Marion County is the largest county in Florida without access to inpatient rehabilitation.

“Currently, Marion County residents have very limited access to an inpatient rehabilitation hospital, requiring patients and their families to travel to Gainesville or Spring Hill,” said Linda Wilder, president of HealthSouth’s Southeast region. “This new hospital will ensure that residents have appropriate and reasonable access to the latest rehabilitative treatment and technology in a hospital setting.”

HealthSouth operates nine inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and one long-term acute care hospital in Florida and in 25 other states and in Puerto Rico. The company’s hospitals provide rehabilitative care to patients recovering from stroke and other neurological disorders, orthopedic, cardiac and pulmonary conditions, brain and spinal cord injury, and amputations.