Upon the recommendation of hospital President Elaine Thompson, the Lakeland Regional Medical Center Board of Directors is moving forward with its goal of becoming a teaching hospital by developing an academic affiliation with USF Health.

“Our principal goal is to transform into a teaching hospital. We believe pairing the research and education innovations of academic medicine with LRMC’s top-notch patient care provides the best healthcare for patients and their families,” said Thompson. “Since announcing our intention to partner with USF Health in September 2012, we have spent months performing a careful evaluation and due diligence, which has concluded that the first step in achieving our goal is executing an academic affiliation.”