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Tampa General Unveils Digestive Center

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Wendi Goodson-Celerin, nurse manager in the new Digestive Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Bayshore Pavillion at TGH, discusses one of the new procedural rooms.

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By KEITH MORELLI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2008

TAMPA - Tampa General Hospital's new 340,000-square-foot Bayshore Pavilion, which features five floors of specialized care, is about to be fully on line, with the Digestive Diagnostic and Treatment Center officially opening for business next week.

The $198 million building overlooks scenic Bayshore Boulevard. The digestive center, which includes 24 pre- and post-procedure rooms and 32 beds, is on the sixth floor and joins a women's center, a trauma and emergency area, a cardiovascular floor and an intensive care unit, all now open for business.

The hospital staff got a VIP tour Thursday morning, looking in on sparkling clean and unused private rooms and state-of-the-art operating rooms. Nurse manager Wendi Goodson-Celerin said the wing will treat patients with gastrointestinal problems.

"We will be full the first day, for sure," she said.

The wing will open for business Wednesday, and gastrointestinal patients from two other sections of the hospital will be transferred there. About 15 doctors will be admitting patients. The wing has about 70 employees, including nurses, aides, dieticians, orderlies, pharmacists and social workers, Goodson-Celerin said.

Each room is private, and most have southwestern views overlooking South Tampa and Hillsborough Bay. All rooms come with serene paintings or photographs depicting fog-shrouded country lanes and bucolic pastures. Plans are in the works to hang original artwork in the public hallways.

Each room has a computer at which staff members can pull up medical records. Free wireless Internet also is a feature, along with flat-screen televisions.

Goodson-Celerin has worked at the 877-bed Tampa General Hospital for the past 20 years, and her new assignment has her smiling.

"It's wonderful," she said. "I came here when the West Pavilion was just a year old. This is a very nice environment we have. It's an environment that promotes healing."

Many gastrointestinal patients will be moved from an area that will open up to elderly patients, Goodson-Celerin said. Those patients, under cardiac care, now are scattered throughout the hospital.

The new center represents the final phase of the Bayshore Pavilion, which was paid for through bonds. The hospital, on the northern tip of Davis Islands, also opened a new 65,000-square-foot emergency room in November.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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