LUTZ – St. Joseph’s Hospital-North celebrated its 15th birthday on Feb. 15, marking 15 years of service to the north Tampa community.
The hospital provides medical and surgical services in more than 20 specialties including breast health, cancer, gastroenterology, heart and vascular, interventional radiology, maternity, orthopedics and urology.
When it opened 15 years ago, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North became the first full-service hospital to open in Hillsborough County since 1985.
Growing with the community
St. Joseph’s Hospital-North had major expansions in 2020 and 2018.
Some of the upgrades from the 2020 expansion include:
- Added two patient floors and increased licensed bed capacity to its current total of 210. St. Joseph’s Hospital-North opened in 2010 with a licensed bed capacity of 108.
- Increased ICU beds from 12 to 24.
- Opened a new infusion and chemotherapy center that can treat up to 15 patients at one time. The center relocated to the current Lutz campus to accommodate growth and improve patient convenience.
- Increased areas for respiratory and physical therapy.
- Expanded the clinical engineering area.
- Added a dialysis unit.
A prior expansion in 2018 added four operating rooms to bring the total to eight. Also in 2018, the hospital opened additional gastrointestinal endoscopy services.
In February 2025, an additional mammography suite for diagnostic breast mammograms and biopsies was added.
Other additions include the hospital’s Unit for Psychiatry and Medicine in 2023 and a coffeehouse staffed by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in 2024.
St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is using the opportunity of its 15th birthday to announce the opening of a NICU. The NICU is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2025.
The NICU will supplement St. Joseph’s Hospital-North’s labor and delivery unit and Mother & Baby unit. The NICU will offer “couplet care.” Mother and baby will be in the same room.
“Traditionally, mom and baby would have to go to separate rooms,” said Sara Dodds, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North president. “Our NICU will enable mom and baby to stay together from the very start.”
Celebrating with the community
St. Joseph’s Hospital-North has had much to celebrate over its 15 years:
- St. Joseph’s Hospital-North earned four out of five stars in the latest Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Quality Star Ratings Report. It is among only 40% of hospitals nationally to earn a 4 or 5-star rating.
- The hospital is accredited as a Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery by the Surgical Review Corporation.
- The hospital received 2024 American Heart Association “Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus and Target: Stroke Elite Honor Roll quality achievement awards for its care of stroke patients.
- The hospital is LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a designation associated with environmental sustainability.
“There is a lot I am proud of,” said Dodds, who has been St. Joseph’s Hospital-North president since April 2023. Dodds is among 80 other team members who have been at the hospital since opening in 2010. The hospital, which opened with less than 500 team members its first year, has more than 1,000 today.
“We have gone through a lot of growth and additions of services,” she said. “I am proud of the team we have created and culture that we have maintained over the last 15 years. As north Tampa continues to grow, we do also, with a commitment to continue offering our patients compassionate care along with modern medicine.”