By Kyle LoJacono
While growth in other industries stalled, healthcare across the region continues to expand.
In 2010, Lutz saw the opening of the first new full-service hospital in Hillsborough County in 30 years. In east Pasco County, Florida Hospital Zephyrhills opened a sleep center, while Pasco Regional Medical Center saw the completion of its wound center.
This year’s development trumps 2010’s, with construction of one new hospital in Wesley Chapel and the opening of another in Trinity, the expansion of an emergency room in Dade City, Florida Medical Clinic’s continued growth in east Pasco and the opening of new services in Lutz.
Wesley Chapel Medical Center
While it will not open until the end of 2012, the Wesley Chapel Medical Center’s construction illustrates the growth still present in healthcare in the region.
The facility, which will be located about one-half mile north of SR 56 on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, broke ground Dec. 14. It will take 18-24 months to build and will be the first full-service hospital in Wesley Chapel, according to John Harding, president and CEO of Adventist Health System’s (AHS) Tampa Bay Region. AHS is building the new hospital.
The project was originally a joint venture between AHS and University Community Health, but the two companies merged last September. It will open with three floors and 80 beds, but is built to easily expand to 300. Harding said he projects more floors will be added to make room shortly after its opening.
The project comes at a price of $121 million, according to AHS spokeswoman Christine Stewart. It will offer obstetrics, pediatrics, women’s and men’s services, general surgery, an emergency department with helicopter pad, a comprehensive medical fitness program, orthopedics and sports medicine.
Pasco Regional Medical Center
Dade City will see another healthcare expansion next year when Pasco Regional Medical Center begins work to double square footage of its emergency department.
Pasco Regional spokeswoman Katie Bryant said the hospital had planned to start work on the expansion last year, but permitting was delayed. A date for the start of the project is not yet set, but will likely be either at the end of January or the start of February.
“It’s just part of offering our patients faster access to care,” Bryant said. “We’ve already have a way for people to check the wait times at www.PascoRegionalmc.com to see a healthcare professional in our emergency department so people can decide when to get nonurgent treatment. That helps reduce wait times and obviously having a larger department will go even farther to cut wait times.”
Bryant said the emergency department at Pasco Regional is currently working at capacity most of the time. She did not have exact details because the design can change during permitting.
Pasco Regional will also renovate its waiting rooms and main lobby in 2011 after the emergency department project is started. The renovation will make those areas look less like a sterile hospital and more like a home, including the addition of artwork and a fresh coat of paint in soft colors such as mint green.
Florida Medical Clinic
Florida Medical Clinic will see at least three major additions to its healthcare offerings in Zephyrhills this year — expansions to its same-day surgery, clinical rheumatology and urgent care facilities.
“We need more space to meet the healthcare needs of our patients in east Pasco County,” said Florida Medical CEO Joe Delatorre.
Florida Medical’s same-day surgery facility will grow by 12,000 square foot. That project is set to start in the first half of 2011. The Rheumatology facilities will increase by 7,500 square feet, plus a tentative plan to make a 7,000-square-foot addition to urgent care.
Additionally, Delatorre said the company plans to add an 18,000-square-foot addition to its medical facility in Land O’ Lakes at some point.
“We can’t add any more physicians in Land O’ Lakes right now, but the demand for more healthcare services continues to grow,” Delatorre said. “We’ve got more plans for the future in Pasco and northern Hillsborough.”
St. Joseph’s Hospital-North
Last year, the opening of St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz was one of the healthcare highlights, but the new facility is still making additions.
Besides adding many more doctors, several from Florida Medical Clinic, the Lutz facility just opened its own imaging center right next door — BayCare Outpatient Imaging Center, a full-service outpatient imaging center. It is located at 4211 Van Dyke Road in Lutz in front of Kohl’s.
“It has already starting seeing patients,” said hospital spokeswoman Jacqueline Farruggio. “It will cut down on patient diagnostic time.”
It offers services such as high-field MRI, multi-slice CT scans, digital mammography, digital X-rays and bone density scanning, according to Farruggio.
Medical Center of Trinity
In the west, the Medical Center of Trinity is set to open its doors in the fall.
The project, which comes with a $210 million price tag, has been delayed several times. It was originally planned to be finished in 2010, but issues with construction and permitting pushed the opening back.
The new hospital will replace Community Hospital in downtown New Port Richey.
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