HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital has opened a newly remodeled clinic across the street from the hospital at 1005 Mar Walt Drive in Fort Walton Beach, operated as a collaborative space with White-Wilson Medical Center.

• The clinic features 12 exam rooms and offers primary care and specialized outpatient services. It will also provide follow-up appointments for patients transitioning from hospital to home, as well as support for patients managing complex medical conditions, medications and treatment plans.

According to the hospital, the renovated space is intended to serve local residents and visitors while also providing training for resident physicians in the hospital’s Graduate Medical Education program under the guidance of physician leaders.

The Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the clinic last week.

The hospital’s internal medicine residency program currently includes 24 resident physicians, with 25 more set to join in July — 12 in internal medicine and 13 in a new transitional year program.

The hospital said the expanded clinic and the transitional year program are both part of the continued growth of graduate medical education at Fort Walton-Destin, with the renovated White-Wilson space used to train both internal medicine and transitional year residents.

Background on the residency program

The residency launched in July 2024, when HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital welcomed its first class of 12 internal medicine residents with a white coat ceremony on July 30. The three-year program is part of the University of Central Florida/HCA Florida Healthcare GME Consortium and received initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education in March 2024.

Program Director Dr. Amanda Finley has previously said the program is designed to address a deficit of primary care providers in the region and to encourage physicians to remain in the community after training.

• The program collaborates with more than 50 local physicians and has faculty collaboration with the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. It also maintains affiliations with Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Auburn campus of Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine.

When Get The Coast checked in on the program in February 2025, Finley said the White Wilson Internal Medicine Clinic was seeing up to 16 patients daily, with anticipated capacity to serve up to 60 patients daily by 2026. She also previewed plans to grow the program to 36 residents by 2026 and to add a transitional year program — both of which are now being realized with the July class and the expanded clinic.

HCA Healthcare offers more than 300 graduate medical education programs across 79 hospitals in 16 states, with over 5,100 residents and more than 300 specialty fellows.