OKEECHOBEE — Raulerson Hospital announced its parent company, HCA Healthcare, will develop a multi-story medical office building on the campus of Raulerson Hospital. The infrastructure, which will become the new entrance to the hospital, will serve as an important physician recruitment tool for the company in the future.

“Being your partner in healthcare excellence includes planning for additional providers to care for the members of this community for decades to come,” said CEO Brian Melear. “As the sole community provider in Okeechobee, we believe investing in this medical office building to assist in recruiting physicians to our area is prudent. We are grateful and humbled by the many members of our dedicated medical staff who have and continue to devote their entire careers to serving the medical needs of our community.”

Several non-clinical areas, including administration, patient registration and the main hospital lobby will also be relocated to the first floor of the new medical office building to create much-needed capacity within the hospital itself. Currently additional parking areas are being developed on hospital-owned property, to off-set the existing parking spaces which will be impacted by the new building. HCA Healthcare continues pre-construction activities with state and local officials. Construction could begin as early as December.

Raulerson Hospital is a facility of HCA East Florida. HCA East Florida is the largest healthcare system in Eastern Florida and an affiliate of HCA Healthcare (HCA). HCA East Florida has 14 hospitals, multiple ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care centers, physician practices, imaging centers and free standing emergency care facilities, as well as a supply chain center and an integrated regional lab. Together, HCA East Florida employs more than 18,000 employees and has more than 6,600 physicians on staff. For more information, visit HCAEastFlorida.com.