Lakeland’s population increased by 12.1% between 2020 and 2023, making it the country’s fastest-growing metro area. That boom has been paired with a surge of new medical facilities attracting an estimated $2 billion in investments and 2 million in square footage in recent years.
R. Brian Rewis, Lakeland’s director of community and economic development, traces the growth back to a 2018 expansion to the Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, which hosts one of the busiest single-site emergency departments nationwide. That year, the hospital opened its 350,000-sq.-ft. Carol Jenkins Barnett Pavilion for Women & Children, bringing the county a children’s emergency department and its first Level III neonatal intensive care unit. Since then, “we've seen such an explosion of additional health care facilities,” Rewis says.
In the years since, Lakeland Regional Health opened its 80,000-sq.-ft. Harrell Family Center for Behavioral Wellness and a 76,000-sq.-ft. medical campus. HCA Florida opened an 11,000-sq.-ft. free-standing emergency room and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs opened a 120,000-plus-sq.-ft. outpatient clinic.
There are more plans on the horizon: At least six new medical facilities have been proposed in the city, including three additional stand-alone emergency departments. One would belong to Orlando Health, which has also begun construction on a seven-story, full-service hospital. Most recently, the Lakeland City Commission approved a zoning change that will allow AdventHealth to build a 720,000-sq.-ft., 10-story full-service hospital and medical center complex.
Aside from a spiking population, Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz credits the boom to Florida paring back its certificate of need regulations, which had required health care companies to prove community need before building or expanding facilities.
The new venues will help fill gaps in the Lakeland community. Lakeland Regional Health’s 2022-25 community needs assessment found that the ratio of Polk County residents to primary care physicians is 2,080:1 — at odds with Florida’s ratio of 1,380:1.
“For some people, medicine is optional. Medical care is optional,” Mutz says. “I think the more opportunity we have on the primary care side is super important. ... Health care is so important.”