Author: Gary Nager

When AdventHealth Wesley Chapel (AHWC) opened as the first hospital located in Wesley Chapel almost a dozen years ago (when it was called Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel) with just 83 total beds, the community was told that the plan was to eventually expand the number of beds to 300. 

Since then, AHWC has done a lot more than just go through a name change to AHWC in 2019. First of all, two medical office buildings have opened (the AHWC Wellness Plaza in 2013 and the Outpatient Cancer & Research Center, in partnership with the Moffitt Cancer Center, in 2021). 

In addition, the hospital more than doubled its original 83 beds to 169 in 2016, which also included increasing from four operating rooms to 12 and from 20 emergency room (ER) beds to 35. 

But, along with the recent establishment of the new family care residency program and the freestanding emergency room in Meadow Pointe (as we reported last issue), AHWC held a groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital’s upward expansion on Aug. 15. Although Jannah and I were not personally able to attend that event, photographer Charmaine George did attend and made sure she recorded all of the proceedings for me, so I could write this story. 

On hand for the event were District 54 State Rep. Randy Maggard, Pasco Commissioners Jack Mariano (Dist. 5), Seth Weightman (Dist. 2) and Board Chair Ron Oakley (Dist. 1), and Pasco Fire Chief Tony Perez, as well as members of both the hospital’s Governing Board and its Foundation’s Board and the AdventHealth Division office. AHWC president Erik Wangsness also introduced Bill Porter of the Porter Family Trust and Scott Sheridan of Locust Branch, LLC, the developer of Wiregrass Ranch, “since we are located on the Porter family’s land,” Wangsness said. 

Wangsness also thanked those involved in the design and construction of the hospital expansion, including the AdventHealth Office of Design & Construction, architects HuntonBrady, design engineers Smith Seckman Reed, Atwell civil engineers and general contractor Batson Cook. 

“This hospital is not yet 12 years old,” Wangsness said. “It opened in 2012 with 83 beds but was designed to grow with the community. We’re at 169 now but this expansion will allow us to add 72 inpatient beds, which is important for us — even though there are other facilities opening around us — since this community continues to grow in a meaningful way.” 

“Case in point,” he added, “We have around 20 patients waiting at our Emergency Department this morning for admission. We need the [additional] capacity to continue to serve this growing community. And, the development isn’t going to stop, so it’s time for us to continue to grow.” 

In addition to the inpatient beds, Wangsness said the expansion will add a couple of additional operating rooms, endoscopy suites, pre- and post-op beds, additional imaging, a PET-CT (positron emission tomography-computed tomography) suite and a hybrid lab (a traditional lab that also can double as a surgical operating room), “that will help us grow in the severity of the patients we can serve. I want to thank all of you for joining us on this warm, muggy morning.” Wangsness also said the expansion should be completed by the end of 2025. 

Wangsness then introduced Rep. Maggard, who said, “We all know how important it is for Advent to be doing this for our community. I can truly say that when I go to Tallahassee, people know [there is] no district like we have, District 54, with the community partners we have here. It is special and I feel very honored to be able to help in any way I can to help this area grow.” 

Rep. Maggard also mentioned Pasco Hernando State College and its nearby Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, which recently expanded its nursing program (as we reported last issue). “We can see a future that’s bright for our area.” 

He also mentioned that the need for health care facilities will continue to grow. “We expect a 20% population growth for Pasco County by 2045,” he said. “If you think the traffic’s bad now, just wait.” 

Comm. Oakley also said he was honored to be on the Foundation Board for AdventHealth, and to be on-hand for yet another major event for the hospital, “which is such a great community partner.” He also said that AHWC’s competition, with one additional hospital built and 1-2 others being built, means all of the hospitals “will be competing to be number 1. The benefactors of that competition are the people of Pasco County.” 

Wangsness said that because Comm. Oakley mentioned AHWC’s competition, “I just want to say that we’ve been recognized by Newsweek magazine three years in a row as one of the ‘World’s Best Hospitals.’” 

Comm. Weightman, whose Dist. 2 includes the hospital, then also thanked the Porter family for its vision for Wiregrass Ranch. 

“It wasn’t long ago that this was all wide open… with cows roaming around…and Bruce B. Downs was a road to nowhere. But, we’ve grown in incredible leaps and bounds over the past decade. The vision of Wiregrass Ranch and AdventHealth…it’s just such a fantastic place to be for our community. The investment that Advent continues to make…and the jobs… it’s just phenomenal.” 

Speaking of vision, the final speaker before the groundbreaking was former University Community Hospital president and long-time AHWC Board member Norm Stein, whom Wangsness credited with having the vision for the need to build a hospital in Wesley Chapel. 

“It was Dec. 14, 2010, when we had another groundbreaking,” Stein said. “The late Don Porter had walked into my hospital and told me of his idea to build a hospital in this part of Pasco and to have a college that could provide nursing students for that hospital. And, he wanted to see both of those institutions come together on his property. And you know what? It wasn’t easy, but it happened.”