Joint venture of UCH and Adventist Health
By Kyle LoJacono
The Wesley Chapel Medical Center is more than 18 months from completion, but the plan for its construction is starting to take shape.
The facility, which will be located one half-mile north of SR 56 and the Shops at Wiregrass on the east side of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, is a joint venture of Adventist Health System and University Community Health (UCH).
Adventist, based in Winter Park, operates several hospitals under the Florida Hospital brand name, which includes Florida Hospital Zephyrhills and 36 other hospitals from Texas to Florida. The Adventist facilities are affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
UCH, based in Tampa, includes several facilities in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, which include University Community Hospital, UCH-Carrollwood and the Pepin Heart Hospital in Tampa.
While the date to break ground has yet to be set, it will likely be sometime this summer, according to Jan Baskin, Florida Hospital Zephyrhills assistant vice president of marketing.
“We are still waiting for the permits to be accepted before we can set the date to break ground,” Baskin said. “From that point it will take 18 months for the whole facility.”
The Agency for Health Care Administration is the governing body that will give final approval before the Wesley Chapel facility is built.
Agency spokeswoman Shelisha Durden said the preliminary approval for the facility came last December, but stated the agency has yet to receive the final plans for the project. She said project plans cannot be finalized until the local government approves the permits.
The original plans were for the facility to cost $121 million, but that number could change based on the final plans.
Once completed, the facility will have 80 beds and 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.
“There may be more offered, but those will be there for sure,” Baskin said. “…It is being built in such a way to expand out and up as new services are needed for the community.”
The Wesley Chapel hospital will be a 200,000-square-foot facility on 52 acres of land. While renditions and virtual tours of the future Wesley Chapel hospital have been created, nothing was released for publication. No accurate artist projections can be made until the plans are finalized and approved.
Baskin said it was premature to say how the new facility would be staffed, but when it opens it will use natural elements to enhance the healing process.
“We will have healing gardens and it will be built to allow as much light as possible to enter the hospital,” Baskin said. “…It will be a beautiful facility.”
This joint venture may not be the only time the Adventists and UCH will join together. The two parent companies signed a nonbinding letter of intent to merge last month, according to a press release received one month ago.
The signing does not guarantee the two will merge, but if the companies do it would create the largest Protestant health care system in the United States according to the press release.
The press release did not go into detail as to why the merger was being considered and numerous interview requests to both companies’ corporate headquarters were declined.
