FSU Health brings together researchers, clinicians and local clinical partners under one umbrella to transform health and healthcare in Florida.
Florida State University has long been engaged in the health and healthcare fields. More than 30 years ago, Florida State Chemistry Professor Robert Holton synthesized the drug Taxol making it widely available to breast cancer patients, saving countless lives. The university's medical school was founded with a mission to improve care statewide and graduates more than 115 new physicians each year. Our current faculty are actively involved in broad areas of health-related research including mental and behavioral health, drug discovery and delivery, successful aging, human performance and more.
Florida State is also establishing an academic health system in Tallahassee and Panama City Beach under the FSU Health umbrella in partnership with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. With support from the State of Florida, FSU will open a new 140,000-square-foot FSU Health Research Center on the Tallahassee Memorial campus in Fall 2026.
Simultaneously, Florida State is partnering with several other institutions to grow its health research portfolio and attract top healthcare and research talent from around the country to Tallahassee, resulting in a more robust healthcare system for the residents of Florida.
FSU has made joint hires with Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic, TMH, and the Andrews Institute. Florida State University has launched the Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases and, more recently, the Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health.
In April 2026, the City of Tallahassee transferred the hospital property and assets to Florida State University as part of an agreement that lays out a plan for FSU to invest in healthcare locally over the next 30 years. FSU now owns the physical hospital property and is driving the long-term research and academic expansion. TMH serves as the clinical anchor of FSU Health and continues to manage daily hospital operations, employ medical staff, and oversee direct patient care under a long-term lease with Florida State University.
This partnership will not interfere with the operation of the hospital or the relationship between providers and patients. Patients will be able to keep their current doctors/providers.
No, TMH employees will continue to be employed by TMH.
Charity care and low-income medical access are unchanged by the partnership with Florida State University. The transition explicitly protects vulnerable populations. The legal property deeds transferred from the city include strict, ironclad restrictions requiring FSU and TMH to maintain charity and indigent care commitments that are at least as generous as those previously set forth in the City-TMH lease agreement.
The expansion opens up massive pipelines for clinical rotations, residencies, and collaborative research across multiple colleges and centers of research—including the College of Medicine, College of Nursing, and the National MagLab. For example, the College of Nursing recently leveraged this ecosystem to launch micro-credentials focusing on utilizing responsible AI in clinical nursing.
No. FSU, FAMU, and TSC will continue their partnerships with TMH to ensure that the next generation of healthcare workers receive the proper educational and training opportunities.
The FSU Health Research Center is slated to open in fall 2026. The 140,000-square-foot building includes clinical research space, a family residency practice, laboratory facilities, and other resources designed to bridge the gap between academic research and patient care. It will include 30-40 health researchers and is expected to attract $40 million in grant funding annually.
With the goal of improving access and innovation in health and healthcare for the rapidly growing population in Northwest Florida, the university has a targeted opening date for 2028. The first phase of the new hospital will include 80 beds and will offer a broad range of healthcare services, including emergency medicine, general surgery, and diagnostic imaging.
The idea of transforming TMH into an Academic Health Center has been under discussion for more than a decade. The TMH Board of Directors first outlined its vision in its 2008 strategic plan, and the hospital and FSU have since added multiple residency programs in internal medicine, general surgery and psychiatry.
In 2021, the TMH and FSU Boards jointly approved the FSU/TMH Academic Health Center Strategic Alignment Plan, which laid out plans for an Academic Health partnership. Construction is under way on the Academic Health Research Building on the TMH campus.
When City of Tallahassee officials expressed interest in divesting of the hospital property, FSU and TMH worked diligently to develop a Memorandum of Understanding to bring to government officials who are vetting it in through a process of public meetings.
The Memorandum of Understanding states that FSU and TMH will work with the City of Tallahassee on the transfer of the hospital assets to FSU, including the 75-acre property, 2-million-square-foot hospital building, and related assets. FSU will then lease the assets to TMH under a new 40-year lease and operating agreement.
TMH will remain the licensed operator of the hospital, preserving its independent, tax-exempt status, while collaborating with FSU through research, branding, academic and clinical operations agreements. The TMH board will continue to set strategy, approve the hospital budget and make operational decisions, but the board composition will be now include a minority number of members nominated by FSU.
No, the City of Tallahassee and FSU are negotiating a price for the land and facilities that would be paid out over several years.
Currently, the city receives $1 per year from TMH for the property, the buildings and other assets.
Ownership of the city-owned assets allows FSU to make direct investments to improve the facilities over time.
Tampa General Hospital and USF benefit directly from a special Hillsborough County Health Care Plan, a 0.5% indigent care sales surtax, part of the total county sales tax, in addition to the state and school surtaxes. Therefore, Hillsborough County is directly involved and helps support charity care within their partnership.
This new partnership will not interfere with the operation of the hospital or the relationship between providers and patients. Patients will be able to keep their current doctors/providers.
All parties are committed to the involvement of FAMU and TSC in the partnership, including through board representation.
No. FSU, FAMU, and TSC will continue their partnerships with TMH to ensure that the next generation of healthcare workers receive the proper educational and training opportunities.
Yes. The MOU between TMH and FSU requires that TMH continue to maintain a charity care program at least as generous as it does today.
This next step in the FSU/TMH partnership demonstrates FSU’s commitment to help expand care at the hospital. Many specialists in high-demand fields are looking specifically for appointments at an academic health center. This partnership would greatly enhance our recruiting efforts of top clinicians in a variety of areas.
The state of Florida is committed to helping FSU build a world class health system that offers the best care to its residents. The hospital board will remain an independent community board. All hospital board members have a fiduciary responsibility to make all decisions in the best interest of the hospital.
FSU faculty have long been engaged in the health and health care fields. More than 30 years ago, Florida State Chemistry Professor Robert Holton synthesized the drug Taxol making it widely available to breast cancer patients and saving countless lives. The university’s medical school was founded with a mission to improve care statewide and graduates more than 115 physicians each year, and our College of Nursing has dramatically increased its enrollment capacity to help address the state’s nursing shortage. Our current faculty are actively involved in broad areas of health-related research including, mental and behavioral health, drug discovery and delivery, successful aging, human performance and more.