Licensed Hospital Programs

Licensed Hospital Programs

The agency recognizes specific services as licensed programs that may be added to a hospital's license: Burn Unit, Stroke Center, Neonatal Intensive Care Services, and Adult Cardiovascular Services. To receive a designation, a hospital must submit a licensure application with evidence of compliance with the statutory and rule requirements as applicable. An application may be made by downloading the Health Care Licensing Application Hospitals.

Burn Unit Designation

All licensed hospitals that operate burn units under Subsection 395.1055(17), F.S., must comply with the verification criteria of the American Burn Association. The criteria is available at http://www.ameriburn.org. Initial designations will be listed as provisional until the verification process with the American Burn Association is complete.

Stroke Center Designation

As specified in Section 395.3038, Florida Statutes, the Agency lists hospitals providing evidence of stroke center certification through a nationally recognized certifying organization. The designations listed by the Agency include Acute Stroke Ready Centers, Thrombectomy-capable Stroke Centers, Primary Stroke Centers and Comprehensive Stroke Centers.


The following are the nationally recognized certifying organizations accepted by the Agency:

• Center for Improvement in Healthcare Quality (CIHQ)
• Det Norske Veritas (DNV)
• Accreditation Commission for Health Care/HFAP
• The Joint Commission

Adult Cardiovascular Services Designation

The Agency adopted administrative rules that provide criteria for designation of hospital programs as an Adult Inpatient Diagnostic Cardiac Catheterization, Level I program authorizing the performance of adult percutaneous cardiac intervention without onsite cardiac surgery, and a Level II program authorizing the performance of percutaneous cardiac intervention with onsite cardiac surgery. This statutory section requires that such programs comply with the most recent guidelines of the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines for staffing, physician training and experience, operating procedures, equipment, physical plant, and patient selection criteria to ensure patient quality and safety.


Agency administrative rules in 59A-3.246(1), (2), and (3) Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), have incorporated by reference the following guidelines:

• 2012 ACC/SCAI Guidelines [ 1.5 MB ]
• 2014 SCAI/ACC/AHA Update [ 519.3 kB ]

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