NAVSTA Guantanamo Bay breaks ground on $227M ambulatory care center

Naval Station (NAVSTA) Guantanamo Bay celebrated a significant milestone with a groundbreaking ceremony June 2 to mark the beginning of construction on a new ambulatory care center and dental clinic to improve healthcare services for area service members and their families.

NAVSTA Guantanamo Bay, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southeast, Defense Health Agency, and Navy Medicine personnel, contractors, and civilian guests attended the ceremony to mark the start of the $227 million project that will replace the existing hospital, which has been in service since 1956.

“This isn’t just the construction of a new facility; it’s the projection of readiness that lays the foundation for sustained operational resilience in the Caribbean,” said Resident Officer in Charge of Construction (ROICC) Lt. Cmdr. Ian Jordan. "By delivering this state-of-the-art medical center, we are keeping a fundamental promise to our service members and their families: that no matter how remote the mission, they will have access to the highest standard of care."

The design-build project, contracted to RQ Construction LLC of Carlsbad, California, will consist of a 90,600-square-foot medical campus designed to provide modern outpatient, specialty, and urgent care capabilities for the military community and families assigned to the installation.

Care services will include primary care, emergency/trauma, behavioral health, general surgery, women’s health, orthopedics, optometry, physical therapy, dental, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, central sterilization, and associated administrative and logistical spaces.

"This groundbreaking is a pivotal moment for Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and for military medicine,” said Rear Adm. Robert Hawkins, director of Defense Health Network Atlantic and commander of Naval Medical Forces Atlantic. “The facility will elevate the world-class care and access our beneficiaries deserve and fundamentally strengthen the readiness of our warfighters and our medical force across the board.”

Supporting facilities will include a central utility plant, ambulance garage, and helipad with backup power. Communications infrastructure improvements, site improvements, parking, signage, antiterrorism/force protection measures, and environmental protection measures are also included under contract.

While the new facility is being built, medical and dental care continue to operate through the existing hospital infrastructure.

Currently, construction is slated to be complete by September 2029.

About Naval Station Guantanamo Bay

Naval Station (NS) Guantanamo Bay is located approximately 430 miles (700 kilometers) southeast of Miami, on the southeastern coast of Cuba. Established in 1903, it is the United States' oldest overseas military installation and the only one in a communist country. According to the United States' lease with Cuba, the U.S. retains jurisdiction while Cuba maintains sovereignty over the 45-square-mile (116-square-kilometer) installation, which is surrounded by a fence line that stretches over 17 miles (27 kilometers).

About U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay

U.S. Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay employs approximately 225 personnel (officer, enlisted, civilian, contractor, and foreign nationals) which support a base population of approximately 6,000, many of whom are military family members, government civilian employees and their families, special category residents, contractors, foreign nationals and migrants. It maintains a reputation for sustaining one of the highest patient satisfaction rates of any of the military treatment facilities in the Navy.

About Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southeast

Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southeast, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, provides planning, design, construction, contracting, environmental services, real estate and facility maintenance for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Space Force, and other federal agencies across the Southeast. Its area of responsibility covers installations from Charleston, South Carolina, to Corpus Christi, Texas, and extends south to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.