Lakeland Regional Health has been a part of the Lakeland community for over 100 years.
Starting in 1916 as Morrell Hospital, the facility began with 65 beds and 24 employees. Today, Lakeland Regional Health is one of the largest hospitals in Florida with 910 beds and is the second largest private employer in Polk County with over 7,000 employees and a medical staff of more than 700. It is the only hospital in Polk County to offer three hybrid operating rooms and a hybrid catheterization lab.
Lakeland Regional Health is an award-winning workplace, rated as a 2020 Making a Difference Workplace Well-Being Gold Winner by Aetna, honored with the Excellence in Work-Life Balance Award by Constangy Brooks, Smith & Prophete LLP in 2019, and recognized in 2018 as the Best Large Hospital Workplace in Florida by the Florida Hospital Association. Forbes named us one of the 2022 Best-in-State Employers. Our leadership team earned the 2023 ATHENA Organizational Leadership Award and the 2023 CHIME-AHA Transformational Leadership Award.
Lakeland Regional Health is proud to give the best possible care for our patients. In 2023 alone, we have earned multiple recognitions for the care we provide to our community including,
The Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center Emergency Department receives national and international attention for the revolutionary ways we reduce wait times, provide faster diagnostic testing, and achieve better and safer patient care. Though we are one of the busiest single-site Emergency Departments in our nation with over 165,278 Emergency Department visits in 2020, our patient wait times are exemplary.
The George W. Jenkins Children’s Emergency Department at the Carol Jenkins Barnett Pavilion for Women and Children provides a separate, full-service emergency care location for children. With 33 beds available and around-the-clock Board-certified physicians, our Children’s Emergency Department offers compassionate and convenient care in a friendly setting.
Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center is a Level II Trauma Center providing initial trauma care, regardless of the injury, with physician subspecialists promptly available. LRH became a state approved Level II Trauma Center in 1998 and is the only designated trauma center for Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. While these counties are LRH’s primary service area, trauma patients are also received from other counties, including Hillsborough and Pasco. The Trauma Surgeons are Board Certified in Surgery and Critical Care Medicine and provide 24-hour coverage for trauma patients in the ICU.
The state-of-the-art, 32-bed Bannasch Institute for Advanced Rehabilitation Medicine on the Medical Center Campus provides evidence-based, innovative inpatient therapeutic rehabilitation services designed to dramatically improve patient outcomes and is the only acute inpatient rehabilitation program in Polk County.
Located 2 miles north of the Medical Center, our Lakeland Regional Health he Hollis Cancer Center holds top-tier Gold Status Accreditation from the Commission on Cancer and was named one of 24 oncology programs in the U.S. to earn the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Commission on Cancer. Lakeland Regional Health’s oncology program has been accredited by the Commission on Cancer for nearly 30 years. Further, we are one of only 23 centers in Florida with accreditation from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers. Our Radiation Oncology program is accredited by the American College of Radiation Oncology, and we are one of 32 hospitals and health systems in Florida designated as a Lung Cancer Screening Center of Excellence by the Lung Cancer Alliance.
The Carol Jenkins Barnett Pavilion for Women and Children is the ideal childbirth destination for quality healthcare for the women and children in our area. The Pavilion offers 17 private suites for labor, delivery, recovery and high-risk antepartum care; 4 C-section surgery suites, and Polk County’s only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, with 30 private NICU rooms. The 32-bed Mother-Baby Unit is designed to allow women, their husbands or support persons and their newborns to comfortably room together.
Our 30-bed Pediatric floor, including a 12-bed high-acuity Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, features space for family members who need to stay overnight. In addition, our Pediatric Surgery Department with 3 pediatric surgery suites, a 10-bed post-anesthesia care unit and a 17-bed pre/post-operative unit. The well-respected surgeons and intensivists from Nemours Children’s Health System provide care for our pediatric surgical patients. There are two additional 32-bed patient care units for antepartum, mother/baby, women’s surgery and medical/surgical patient needs.
The Jack and Tina Harrell Family Institute for Advanced Cardiovascular Medicine provides patients and families with advanced treatments across the entire continuum of care. Minimally invasive and leading-edge surgery and post-surgical recovery and rehabilitation ensure the very best outcomes and safest care to our patients. Our Harrell Heart Center, Chest Pain Center and Comprehensive Stroke Center perform timely, life-saving care for those affected by heart disease. Providing personalized and preventive cardiovascular care for those with heart failure and focusing on treating heart disease in women allows us to provide customized treatment to the members of our community.
The Institute for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and Medicine is a unique collaboration among community providers. Bariatric Surgeons see patients at the Grasslands Campus, and procedures are performed at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center. The Institute for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and Medicine offers a full range of surgical weight loss procedures, such as Gastric Bypass and Sleeve Gastrectomy, as well as non-surgical weight-loss options such as medical injections and nutritional counseling.
Lakeland Regional Health has long offered exceptional care to patients with a variety of behavioral health conditions, and the Harrell Family Center for Behavioral Wellness allows us to expand our care to meet the ever-growing behavioral health needs of those in our community.
The free-standing, 96-bed facility promotes the therapeutic and healing properties of natural light and other visual aspects of the patient environment to reduce stress and encourage healing. In addition, the facility includes secure outdoor space for patients and families, which is scientifically shown to contribute to better outcomes.
Our GME programs are affiliated with NSU-KPCOM