New St. Joseph Hospital Will Be Private, Paperless, Green

LUTZ - By the end of next year, people living in northern Hillsborough and southern Pasco counties won't have to go as far to get a full range of medical care.

St. Joseph's Hospital-North, now under construction on the north side of Van Dyke Road, just west of North Dale Mabry Highway, will feature high technology in a hotel-style setting.

Each of the 108 patient rooms will be private.

Lounges and balconies will overlook indoor gardens and cafes.

Lakes will dot the landscape.

The $225 million project will be a three-story, 350,000-square-foot structure. It is the first new community hospital in Tampa in 35 years, said Paula McGuiness, chief operating officer for St. Joseph's Hospital-North.

Besides private rooms, the hospital will have an emergency room, an intensive care unit, medical and surgical services, a mother-baby unit, a surgery center and an observation unit for short-stay patients.

It also will operate in a "paperless" environment, where everything from doctor's orders to medical records will be electronic. The system reduces opportunities for errors and vastly decreases the space needed to store records, McGuiness said.

The hospital, which has a contemporary architectural style, joins a medical office building on a 38-acre site. The land was acquired by the hospital in 1985 - anticipating an eventual need for a hospital based on the area's growth.

The new hospital is 13 miles northwest of St. Joseph Hospital's main campus at 3001 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The primary service area for St. Joseph's Hospital-North includes Calusa Trace, Cheval, Westchase, Carrollwood, Northdale, Lake Magdalene and Avila.

McGuiness expects the new hospital to be able to handle most patients' needs. There is a helipad on the north campus, so patients can be flown to St. Joseph's main campus under extreme circumstances.

Having private patient rooms reduces the risk of spreading infection and lowers the chances of a patient getting the wrong treatment, McGuiness said. The privacy the rooms offer will likely be a big hit with patients because they won't have to worry about who is rooming with them, she added.

To avoid confusion and save time, each patient room will be set up the same way. That allows caregivers to focus entirely on the patient, rather than wondering where supplies are kept, or where to wash their hands, McGuiness said.

Each patient room also has a couch, so visitors will have a comfortable place to sleep while staying with patients.

The new hospital is expected to employ 300 to 350 people.

Many of those employees may already be working at the hospital's main campus, McGuiness said. She already is hearing from employees who live closer to the new hospital and want to make the switch.

People began giving her their resumes 18 months ago.

The new hospital will have windows built to withstand 140 mph winds. It also has finished stairwells and wide corridors.

The design also aims to conserve energy through efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems, and the types of materials used for construction.

Hospital officials are so serious about the building's efficiency that they're seeking a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, which requires verification of the building's efficiency by a third party.

"It's a pretty huge commitment. Short-term, it can be 1 to 2 percent in terms of cost of the whole building, and that's not insignificant," McGuiness said.

Hospital officials aim to open the building by the end of next year to coincide with St. Joseph's Hospital's 75th anniversary.

Beyond that, they are eager to offer medical care closer to the people, McGuiness said.

"We had one of our physicians, who was on our senior management staff, who lived in Odessa," McGuiness said. "He had a heart attack and he came here to St. Joseph's main campus. He unfortunately didn't survive.

"You wonder: If he had that hospital in closer proximity, could we have made a difference in the lives of that family?

"You don't know the answer to that.

"It is a point that the closer the care, the more impact you can have on the quality and level of care you can get in a quicker period of time.

"We're just getting you a step closer to be able to receive treatment that much sooner."