Key
Highlights :
Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare will create a new academic health center through renaming the hospital FSU Health.
FSU owns TMH assets back under 40-year lease; operations and employee positions unchanged.
Coming to fruition is a 140,000-sq-ft FSU Health Research Center opening in 2026 to expand specialty care and clinical research.
Key Background :
The effort to redevelop TMH as an academic health center has been underway for over a decade. TMH initially drafted the vision in 2008 as a long-term strategic plan to blend clinical care, education, and research.
TMH expanded its education strengths gradually year by year by creating residency programs in psychiatry, general surgery, and internal medicine. These initiatives paved the way for an even greater partnership with Florida State University, itself creating state presence in research and medicine.
FSU and TMH boards as a whole endorsed the Strategic Alignment Plan for an academic health center in 2021. The plan stipulated how the two would come together to form a center that combines innovative medical practice, academic endeavor, and research.
The momentum carried over into 2022 when the Florida Legislature approved $125 million to pay for the new FSU Health Research Center on the TMH campus. The 140,000-square-foot building, scheduled to open in 2026, will unite patient care, residency training, and advanced clinical research in one facility.
In the new deal, FSU will receive TMH's 75-acre hospital campus and 2-million-square-foot hospital building and will lease them back to TMH on a 40-year basis. In the swap, TMH is still a nonprofit organization, retains its employees, and continues to maintain day-to-day hospital operations but benefits from academic integration and affiliation with FSU for research purposes.
For the region, the partnership is intended to bring hefty dividends: greater access to high-tech services, additional medical and nursing student training, additional research effort, and new economic incentives. With both campuses harmonizing in song, North Florida can become a regional health sciences center for innovation and excellence in high-end patient care.
About the Author
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith is a Managing Editor at World Care Magazine.