A hospital that has served Dade City for decades is undergoing a substantial renovation — which will give it a new look and allow it to expand the services that the health care facility offers.
The project carries a $22.2 million price tag, including $20 million provided by AdventHealth Dade City’s parent company and $2.2 million raised locally, according to Jason Newmyer, administrator/vice president for AdventHealth Dade City.
The hospital is at 13100 Fort King Road in Dade City.
The work, being done in four phases and expected to be completed by the end of this year, “is truly going to holistically change every aspect of this hospital,” the hospital administrator said.
The work ranges from new paint and flooring throughout the 100,000-square-foot facility, to new diagnostic equipment, to reopening two units in the hospital that were not operating when AdventHealth Dade City acquired it last April.
The new equipment includes a 128-slice CT scanner and a da Vinci surgical system.
The CT scanner will “do head and heart studies faster and more effective than anything we’ve ever had here at this hospital. And, as effective as anything that’s in the Tampa market,” Newmyer said.
“Strokes and heart attacks can be diagnosed here as fast and as accurate as any other facility — if not better,” he said.
The da Vinci surgical system allows physicians to perform minimally invasive surgeries robotically.
The hospital also plans to bring MRI equipment indoors, instead of having it outdoors in a truck, which is where it was when they acquired the hospital last year.
The changes are all in keeping with AdventHeath Dade City’s mission to be caretakers of health care in the community, Newmyer said.
The hospital’s staff realizes that patients want to feel cared for, want to feel safe, want to have their privacy protected and want to be able to trust that they are receiving a high quality of care, Newmyer said.
Comfort is important, too, he said.
“People now care about aesthetics and experience. We are very intentional about how we
redesign and build this space,” the hospital administrator said.
The upgrade involves taking advantage of the hospital’s existing capacity, Newmyer explained.
“When we purchased this hospital, two of the four units were dark — not being used,” he said.
One of those areas is being converted into a transitional care unit and the other will be used as a surgical unit.
The transitional care unit will enable the hospital to “take care of patients that are sicker and patients that have more physical needs, that need to be addressed from that post-acute care perspective in a way that this hospital and this community hasn’t been able to in the past,” Newmyer said.
The surgical unit will offer “a brand-new surgical experience for patients that come in here,” Newmyer added.
The pre-op unit will be vastly different, too. In the past, the area consisted of bays, separated by curtains. The new space will have individual rooms, which are larger than the previous bays — allowing privacy and the patient to have family wait there with them.
Other changes will be a new lobby, including a chapel, which will have a sliding door that resembles barn doors. That’s in keeping with Dade City’s agricultural roots, Newmyer said.
The cafeteria also is being overhauled. It will be larger, with indoor and outdoor seating, and will have a large table where families can sit together.
Besides having a fresh look and new equipment, the hospital expects to hire about three dozen new employees, Newmyer said, boosting its current staff of 300 by nearly 10 percent.
The hospital also is looking to bring on six more physicians this year, and is continuing to partner with local independent physicians, as well as large physician groups, he said.
The hospital is approved for 120 beds, but because two units have been turned off, it has only been using 60 beds.
Work is obviously underway at the hospital, with about half of its parking lot closed off.
Hospital operations continue, though, with people using different ways to get around the facility’s campus.
Efforts also are underway to secure the local contributions, Newmyer said, noting there will be naming opportunities for the operating room services, the chapel and the cafeteria.
The hospital welcomes community involvement — whether it be philanthropic support to friendship,” Newmyer said.
The hospital administrator invites anyone who would like to help, or even if they’d just like more information about the hospital’s renovation, to reach out to him.
Or, he said, you can just let him know that you’d like to visit for a cup of coffee and a tour.
He’s already given dozens.
Published January 23, 2019
