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The rivalry among medical providers is intensifying in and around Deltona, with Florida Hospital Fish Memorial’s announcement that it will build a free-standing emergency department along Howland Boulevard.

The new facility will be built near Halifax Health’s hospital now under construction at the interchange of Interstate 4 and Howland. 

“It’s been in the planning stage for about 18 months,” Florida Hospital Fish Memorial Chief Executive Officer Rob Deininger told The Beacon. 

The site of the new $12 million emergency department is 4 undeveloped acres on the north side of Howland Boulevard, across from Top Shelf Car Wash and Honest-1 Auto Care and to the east of a Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting place. 

The 14,000-square-foot emergency department will have 12 patient-care beds, where those suffering critical illnesses or injuries may be stabilized before being transferred to a hospital or released. 

Deininger said the new emergency facility will be ready to open “by the end of next summer.”

Unlike Halifax Health’s emergency department that became the core of a hospital in the making, Florida Hospital’s emergency center will not expand into an inpatient facility. 

“Our intention on that property is to have a hospital-based emergency department on the site and to, at some point in the future, add medical-office space,” Deininger said.

Asked about the growing availability of medical services and the competition among big-name providers in the fast-growing area, Deininger said he is confident there will be a market for no-waiting care.

“I think the emergency department will have enough business there. We have the ability to provide the services,” he said.

After Halifax Health announced two years ago it would build an emergency department at the I-4/Howland interchange, Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford announced its plan to develop a similar facility on a triangular parcel bounded by I-4, Howland Boulevard and East Graves Avenue. 

Although the Deltona City Commission approved the concept almost three years ago, Central Florida Regional has not yet built on the property. 

Florida Hospital Fish Memorial also last year purchased 30 acres on the west side of I-4, directly across from Halifax Health’s medical campus in Deltona, but Deininger would not say what the future of that site may be. 

Florida Hospitals recently announced they would rebrand themselves as AdventHealth.