B.C. Manion

St. Joseph’s Hospital-North has completed a $75 million expansion, and began welcoming patients to its more spacious facility this week.

The project doubled the hospital’s capacity — increasing it from 108 beds to 216 beds. The hospital also has upped its intensive care unit beds from 12 to 24. And, has more room to deliver services, accommodate visitors and enhance employee work areas.

Sara Dodds, the hospital’s director of operations, provided a walk-through tour of the addition to The Laker/Lutz News last week, before it opened for patients.

The expansion will allow the hospital to respond to the area’s fast-paced growth, Dodds said.

“There’s definitely a need. There’s so many new homes going up around us.

“We’ve been overcapacity for quite some time,” she said.

The hospital’s primary market is within 5 miles, and its secondary market is within 10 miles.

“The growth going on in our primary and secondary service areas is much faster than the rest of Florida and the rest of the country,” Dodds said.

In designing its expansion, the hospital sought feedback from its existing staff and incorporated their ideas into the design, she said.

For instance, Dodds said, “We got feedback from the staff that our waiting rooms weren’t very open, and inviting for guests.”

The new waiting rooms feature comfortable furniture, artwork and a flat-screen TV.

Patient rooms also provide accommodations for patients when they’re out of their beds, and offer a place where family member can rest through the night.

Also, at intervals in the hospital’s corridors, there are respite areas.

Dodds explained: “A lot of time we might ask a visitor to step out, while we’re doing something for the patient. Instead of them having to stand out in the hallway, or go walk to another location, we added benches.”

The recently wrapped-up project also includes technology to help patients.

There’s a “Get Well Network,” which allows patients to watch health videos, learn about their medications and so on. “That is all integrated with their medical record,” Dodds said.

The hospital also uses technology that automatically displays the name and title of hospital staff entering a patient’s room on the television screen.

That system is integrated with the hospital’s call light system, so “as long as a nurse or a tech or another member of that clinical care team is in the room, there’s a specific color light that’s illuminated outside the room,” Dodds said.

The hospital also uses a technology that allows care team members to secure-message physicians and anyone they might need to take care of a patient.

“It’s definitely enhanced communications, on behalf of the patient,” she said.

The expansion also includes a dedicated hemodialysis suite, which can accommodate up to four patients at a time.

It has a larger space for physical therapy, too, to help patients prepare to return home after treatment.

The hospital’s clinical engineering department now has a larger workspace, where staff can ensure the hospital’s equipment is up-to-date and can do required preventative maintenance work.

The design keeps function, in mind.

In the progressive care area, for instance, a nurse can sit at a station, with windows on both sides. The nurse can slide open the blinds, to observe two patient rooms, without having to enter the rooms.

The hospital also is using technology to help manage its inventory.

“Historically, someone from materials management would have to come in each day, or more than once a day, and have to count everything that was in the bin (material container), so they knew what to reorder.

“Now, with this new technology, there’s a scale built into every one of those bins, they can see it on a computer system, so they know, remotely, what needs to be reordered,” Dodds said.

The technology improves efficiency.

“We did hire a lot of new staff for the expansion, but this is one area where we did not have to because of the innovation,” Dodds said.

The hospital also has more classrooms now, which are used to keep staff up to date on the latest information, to provide training on new equipment and to accommodate orientations. They’re also available for classes to help staff members meet continuing education requirements.

With a larger facility, more employees will be needed.

Dodds expects the hospital to need 200 additional employees, when the expansion is operating at full capacity.

She’s been working there since its inception and is excited about the facility’s future.

Apparently, she’s not the only one who enjoys working there.

“We just celebrated our 10-year anniversary,” she said. “We have close to 100 team members that were here when the hospital opened that are still here now.”

St. Joseph’s Hospital-North
The $75 million expansion:

• Doubled number of hospital beds, from 108 to 216
• Doubled intensive care unit beds, from 12 to 24
• Added two new floors
• Added a new infusion center, allowing treatment for up to 15 patients at one time
• Doubled number of operating suites, from four to eight

Hospital statistics, 2019

• 404 births
• 4,467 outpatient surgeries
• 42,869 emergency room visits
• 463,414 lab tests

Hospital statistics, 2010-2019

• 6, 944 cardiac procedures
• 380,061 emergency room visits
• 61,137 admissions
• 31,300 surgeries
• 3,923 babies delivered

Service providers

• 188 physicians with hospital privileges in 2010; more than 350 in 2020
• 476 team members in 2010; 820 in 2020

Published March 11, 2020