Florida Hospital Systems Overview

Florida's hospitals are run by a mix of for-profit chains, not-for-profit regional systems, university academic systems and county public systems, with HCA Florida Healthcare stating 50 hospitals across the state.

HCA Florida Healthcare calls itself the state's largest healthcare network, with 50 hospitals plus freestanding emergency departments, surgery centers, physician practices and urgent care clinics from the Panhandle to Palm Beach (HCA Florida Healthcare). BayCare Health System was formed in 1997 by a core group of local hospitals and now operates 16 hospitals, all not-for-profit, across West Central Florida (BayCare). UF Health, which describes itself as a nonprofit health system, counts 12 hospitals in Gainesville, Jacksonville and Central Florida (UF Health).

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration lists other systems by name in its Florida Hospital at Home approvals, including Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Cleveland Clinic hospitals in Weston, Stuart and Vero Beach, Health First in Brevard County, Orlando Health in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties, Lee Health in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, AdventHealth Orlando and Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville (AHCA hospital at home chart). This Florida guide gives a hospital count only where the system itself publishes one on a page checked for this guide, so the AHCA chart is the reference for those systems.

Every Florida hospital needs a license from the Agency for Health Care Administration in Tallahassee, issued under Chapter 395, Part I, and Chapter 408, Part II, of the Florida Statutes (AHCA).

Florida law defines a hospital as an establishment that offers services more intensive than room, board, personal services and general nursing care, with beds for use beyond 24 hours, and that regularly makes available at least clinical laboratory services, diagnostic X-ray services and treatment facilities for surgery or obstetrical care, or other definitive medical treatment of similar extent (section 395.002, Florida Statutes). The same statute separates a general hospital, open to the general population, from a specialty hospital that serves a defined age or gender group or a restricted range of services.

AHCA says it is unlawful to advertise any facility in Florida as a hospital without that state license. State licensure is mandatory, while Medicare certification and accreditation are optional. Accredited hospitals that meet Rule 59A-3.253(3) of the Florida Administrative Code may be deemed in compliance and are not scheduled for routine on-site licensure surveys, though periodic Life Safety Code inspections continue (AHCA hospital licensure page). The AHCA Hospital and Outpatient Services Unit is at 2727 Mahan Drive, Mail Stop 53, Tallahassee, phone (850) 412-4549. Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration website.

Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami holds 1,484 licensed beds in the AHCA facility file for Miami-Dade County dated August 24, 2026, the largest count in that county (AHCA FloridaHealthFinder).

The AHCA Miami-Dade file lists 36 hospitals in the county, from Jackson Memorial at 1,484 licensed beds down to Baptist Health Hospital at Doral at 15 (AHCA facility data). Tampa General Hospital states that it is licensed for 1,354 beds and calls itself one of the largest hospitals in Florida (Tampa General); that figure is the hospital's own, not an AHCA download.

AHCA says copies of hospital licenses, applications and inspection reports are public record but are not posted on its hospitals page, and it points record seekers to its inspection reports, facility locator and public records request pages (AHCA).

Jackson Health System in Miami-Dade County is governed by the Public Health Trust on behalf of the county commission, and Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood calls itself one of the largest public healthcare systems in the nation (Jackson Health System; Memorial Healthcare System).

Jackson Health System is governed by the Public Health Trust, a board of citizen volunteers acting on behalf of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, and its stated mission is a single high standard of care for residents of Miami-Dade County regardless of ability to pay. Its hospitals are Jackson Memorial Hospital, Jackson South Medical Center, Jackson North Medical Center, Jackson West Medical Center, Holtz Children's Hospital and The Women's Hospital at Jackson Memorial, and Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital. The system traces its start to June 25, 1918, when Miami City Hospital, now Jackson Memorial Hospital, opened (Jackson Health System).

Memorial Healthcare System dates from 1953. Its flagship, Memorial Regional Hospital, and Memorial Regional Hospital South are both in Hollywood, and Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital at Memorial provides the system's pediatric services. Its board of commissioners and special district information pages sit on the system site (Memorial Healthcare System).

AHCA publishes two statewide lists that show which systems hold special approvals: the Florida Hospital at Home approved programs, dated August 19, 2025, and the 2026 Behavioral Health Teaching Hospitals (AHCA hospital at home chart; AHCA teaching hospitals sheet).

The hospital at home chart lists approved programs by system and county. BayCare Health System has the longest entry, with Mease Countryside, Morton Plant, St. Anthony's, Morton Plant North Bay, Mease Dunedin, South Florida Baptist in Plant City, Wesley Chapel, Winter Haven and Bartow Regional. The University of Florida entry includes UF Health Shands in Gainesville, UF Health Jacksonville, UF Health Leesburg and UF Health The Villages, and Orlando Health with Orlando Regional Medical Center, Arnold Palmer, South Seminole, Dr. P. Phillips, South Lake and St. Cloud (AHCA chart).

The Florida Legislature created the Behavioral Health Teaching Hospital designation through the Live Healthy initiative in 2024 to train more behavioral health professionals. AHCA lists six designated hospitals in 2026: Jackson Memorial Hospital, Larkin Community Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital, Tampa General Hospital, UF Health Jacksonville and UF Health Shands Hospital (AHCA). AHCA's hospitals page says the application period for the fiscal year 2026 to 2027 Behavioral Health Teaching Hospital grant program opens October 1, 2026 and closes October 30, 2026 (AHCA).

One rule change AHCA flags on its hospitals page took effect July 1, 2019, when House Bill 21, Chapter 2019-136, Laws of Florida, removed certain hospital programs and services from Certificate of Need review (AHCA).

AHCA notes that rules 59C-1.039, 59C-1.042 and 59C-1.044 of the Florida Administrative Code stay in effect only to keep licensure requirements for those services until new licensure rules are adopted (AHCA hospital licensure page). Programs such as transplant services still file program descriptions with AHCA under those rules.

Several official Florida figures need a date check before use. The AHCA hospital at home chart reads approved programs as of 08/19/2025, more than a year old on October 15, 2026 (AHCA chart). The FloridaHealthFinder bed file used on this page covers Miami-Dade County only and is stamped August 24, 2026 (AHCA facility data). On the BayCare About page, one panel lists 33,669 team members while the paragraph below says more than 34,000, so a workforce count for Tampa Bay should name which figure and date it uses (BayCare).