Tag: BayCare

News Briefs — BayCare Seeking YMCA Approval, Home Sense Opens & Subaru Celebrates

*BayCare Health’s proposed YMCA (two black outlines at center left) and medical office building (top rectangle close to BBD).*

As reported by Kelly Gilroy on her outstanding “Pasco County Development and Growth Updates” Facebook page on Aug. 24 — after no updates since representatives from the YMCA first started attending local meetings a couple of years ago — BayCare Health Systems is having a pre-application meeting with Pasco County staff to propose 52,391-sq.-ft. YMCA and a 100,000-sq.-ft., two-story medical office building. The plan includes parking lots, a “New Drive” roadway and a curb-cut connection at the southwest corner of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and Eagleston Blvd., next to the new BayCare Wesley Chapel hospital. We’ll update this story once we have additional information.

Home Sense Opens Next To Bealls

On Aug. 10, a new Homesense store opened in the Shoppes at New Tampa of Wesley Chapel, between the also-still-new Bealls Outlet and Flip Flop Shops stores in the plaza on BBD Blvd. south of S.R. 56.

Homesense — the off-price home store featuring high-quality furniture and accessories that is the newest retail banner of The TJX Companies, Inc. — now operates 50 stores in the U.S. TJX is the leading off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the U.S. and worldwide. The company operates nearly 5,000 total stores in nine countries, including 1,304 T.J. Maxx, 1,189 Marshalls, 901 HomeGoods, 81 Sierra, and now 50 Homesense stores.

I visited the new store the day it opened and it was packed with not only people, but as-advertised great prices on everything from couches to wall art to Halloween knickknacks (photo above). For more information, visit us.homesense.com or call (813) 991-0249.

Subaru’s Grand Grand Opening!

Although the dealership has been open for several months, we want to thank Subaru of Wesley Chapel (located at 26570 Silver Maple Pkwy., just south of S.R. 56) owner Scott Fink and his entire staff for hosting one of the greatest Grand Opening and North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon-cutting (top photo) events in recent memory on Sept. 7.

An estimated crowd of at least 300 people attended the dog-friendly event (the dealership is a supporter of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay), which included three food trucks, lots of amazing raffle prizes (including a mountain bike, kayak and paddleboard) and lots of happy dogs, some up for adoption, others with their owners and some with their Pasco Sheriff’s Office handlers (photo, below).

“Scott Fink and his Fink Auto Group definitely know how to throw a party,” said NTBC president & CEO Hope Kennedy. “We appreciate the opportunity to be here to cut the ribbon.” For more information about Subaru of Wesley Chapel, call (813) 618-5051 or visit SubaruWesleyChapel.com.

Thousands Get A Preview Of BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel!

Scooping his free Island Fin Poké Co. poké bowl into his mouth, Trey Walker paused for a second before answering the question of the day at BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel’s open house last month.

“I don’t like hospitals,” the Tampa truck driver said, smiling, “but if I ever need to go to one, I hope it’s this one.”

Walker was one of an estimated 4,000 people who took part in the area’s newest hospital’s open house on Feb. 18, which featured tours, food trucks, vendor booths and a kids area.

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel was expected to open to at least emergency room patients today (Mar. 7). The 86-bed, state-of-the-art hospital is located on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. just south of S.R. 54.

BayCare Wesley Chapel president Becky Schulkowski was thrilled to finally unveil the hospital to the public.

“It’s just been extremely exciting, rewarding, and humbling seeing the response from the community,” she said. “I’m being thanked for coming to this community. It just feels like such a blessing…and we will live up to their expectations.”

*The new hospital features private rooms with Alexa-enabled services, and a Da Vinci Robotic Surgical System*. (*Photo: John C. Cotey*)

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel boasts 318,000 sq. ft. of space, and will feature comprehensive medical services and health care resources, including an emergency department, an intensive care unit with virtual-monitoring beds, diagnostic services such as imaging and on-site lab services, and physical rehabilitation. BayCare is investing $246 million in the project, which will be the 16th link in the nonprofit’s chain, which has locations throughout Central Florida. The Wesley Chapel location will be just the second full-service BayCare hospital in Pasco County and will feature outstanding technology like the CT scanner and a DaVinci Robotic Surgical System.

The DaVinci robot drew a few oohs and aahs from those on the tour, its multiple arms coiled like a resting octopus. It allows for very precise incisions and techniques used by surgeons, including things like hernia repairs and colorectal surgery.

“So, if anyone with colon cancer needs to have parts of their colon removed, it can be done with the robot,” Schulkowski said. “The procedures with the robot really allows you to heal faster and get out of the hospital quicker. With some of those bigger surgeries, before we started using the robotic surgery, you would be in the hospital for five days (or more) after that procedure. Now, you can be home in one or two days.…and what most people want is to get out of the hospital and get home.”

Much of the planning that went into BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel was about comfort.

“We really thought about what it feels like to be a patient, and how much most people really don’t like to be in a hospital,” Schulkowski said. “So, we really tried to design it with that perspective in mind, and really make it a comfortable, healing environment.”

That means all of the patient rooms are private, and have integrated Alexa, a voice-controlled virtual assistant that allows you to call your nurse, dim the lights, raise the blinds or the thermostat and other things, with just your voice.

The hospital provides most general surgeries, orthopaedic surgeries, urology and a cath lab to diagnose any heart issues, Schulkowski said.

“We went all out to make sure we had the absolute best technology available for the community,” she added.

While 86 rooms may not seem like a lot, BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel is expandable. Schulkowski said the option is available to build a second tower directly above the ER if needed. “We can pretty much double everything,” she said.

Also planned is a 20-bed observation unit, which could be built next to the ER on the backside of the hospital, by 2027. “That will allow us to cohort what we call observation patients, patients that come in and maybe have chest pain, and we need to run a couple tests and see is it a heart problem? Or is it just really bad heartburn?,” Schulkowski said. “While you’re waiting for those tests, you don’t need to be up in the hospital, you’re just waiting on getting some test results. We’re gonna keep you comfortable, get those test results and then, hopefully, send you on your way.”

It was ten years ago that AdventHealth (then Florida Hospital) Wesley Chapel opened its doors, giving the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa areas newer (and closer) options for care. And, next up is Orlando Hospital Wesley Chapel, a 300-bed facility under construction on S.R. 56.

The nonprofit company that is opening BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel understands that there are options. Schulkowski said her staff is ready to meet the challenge. In fact, one of her pet projects was the sculpture out front — five ribbons coming together. Each ribbon has one of the five BayCare values engraved on it: Trust, Respect, Responsibility, Excellence and Dignity.

“I wanted the very first thing that our community saw when they came onto campus (were) the BayCare values, because that’s what we bring to this community,” Schulkowski said.

For more information, visit BayCare.org.

BayCare hospital Wesley Chapel

Busy Month! AHWC’s 10-Year Event Feb. 5; BayCare WC’s Preview Feb. 18!

AdventHealth Wesley Chapel (AHWC) marked its 10th anniversary late last year, but due to bad weather that canceled its big party, the hospital’s administration and staff, and the Wesley Chapel community, never got to celebrate the big event.

On Sunday, February 5, the official ten-year celebration will finally be held. The hospital, Wesley Chapel’s first, promises a “free, fun-filled day of family-friendly activities and health & wellness for every age” from 1 p.m.-4 p.m.

The celebration will be held in the parking lot behind the hospital, which is located at 2600 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.

AHWC has been a well-known and active fixture in Wesley Chapel, since opening in 2012 as Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, coming along at a time when there was not nearly as much in the area.

“I think we were really the catalyst for the growth here in Wesley Chapel,” Connie Bladon, the director of community outreach for AHWC, told us last October when the hospital turned 10. “You always want a good hospital, (as well as) good schools, safety and security, things like that….Everything (else has) sprung up around us.”

Since opening in 2013, the hospital’s popular 100,000-sq.-ft. health & wellness center building, which is now called the AdventHealth Wellness Plaza Wesley Chapel, also opened, and a major expansion in 2016 saw the number of beds double (from 83 to 169) and the hospital went from having just four operating rooms to its current 12, and from 20 emergency room beds to 35.

There is still room for AHWC to expand to 300 total beds. Since it opened, the hospital’s doctors have performed more than 56,000 surgeries and delivered more than 5,000 babies.

In 2021, AHWC teamed up with the Moffitt Cancer Center on a new three-story, 100,000-sq.-ft. medical office building, a new oncology unit with 24 in-patient rooms and two new operating rooms.

To register to attend, visit AHWesleyChapel.com/Events. — JCC

BayCare Preview Feb. 18!

Meanwhile, BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel, an 86-bed, state-of-the-art hospital that will open in March is hosting a Community Event preview of the new hospital on Saturday, February 18, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel will contain comprehensive medical services and health care resources including: Breast health, diabetes and endocrinology, diagnostic services (including imaging and lab), ear, nose and throat, emergency room, gastroenterology, heart and vascular, intensive care unit with virtual-monitoring beds, interventional radiology, orthopedics, primary care, pulmonology and respiratory, rehabilitation, surgery (including robotic surgery), urology, wound care and more.

The family-friendly event will include hospital tours, cuisine from local restaurants, wellness screenings, a local market, live music and entertainment and a kids village with games, activities, puppets and more.

For more information, and to register to attend, visit baycare.org/baycare-is-growing-in-wesley-chapel. — GN

AdventHealth BayCare

Looking Ahead To 2023 In Wesley Chapel After A Crazy Busy 2022

Gary Nager Editorial

I’m so thankful for how things went for me, both personally and professionally, in 2022.

I found out this year that my sons and Jannah’s daughter and son will increase the number of grandchildren between us from two to six by April of next year. And, after a couple of years of serious pain, I had both of my knees replaced in 2022 and I’m back to working out regularly and feeling like I’ve turned back the clock to younger, healthier times.

In addition, the Neighborhood News is still going gangbusters, despite me having to suffer through those two knee replacement operations and many weeks of difficult physical therapy following each of those surgeries.

And, here in Wesley Chapel, 2022 was another year of unprecedented growth, as our all-direct-mail distribution grew from 29,000 homes, apartments and businesses and fewer than 82,000 people in zip codes 33543, 33544 & 33545 to more than 31,000 residences and businesses and more than 85,000 people over the course of the year, despite the fact the once-insane local real estate market finally cooled off…at least somewhat.

I’m also proud to say that we added more than three dozen new advertisers in 2022 and continued to make the vast majority of our advertisers, old and new, happy with their results.

On pages 4 and 6 of our last Wesley Chapel issue of the year, managing editor John Cotey recaps some of the biggest 2022 stories in Wesley Chapel with look-towards-2023 updates on those stories. But, there are a few other stories we are looking forward to covering in 2023 and there’s little doubt that many of them also will be big news for us. Here are a few, in no particular order:

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel opening — Although not as large as the existing AdventHealth Wesley Chapel hospital, adding a second full-service hospital in Wesley Chapel will definitely mean more access to health care within a few miles for more Wesley Chapel residents. Remember that a new hospital also means more doctors, nurses, therapists and jobs in our community and yes, more people moving to our area. I know that not everyone thinks that’s a good thing, but I, for one, am not opposed to it.

St. Luke’s Eye Center opening — After having cataracts in both eyes fixed at the St. Luke’s center in Tarpon Springs right before the pandemic began, I am hopeful that locals will be able to stay in our area (next to Miller’s Ale House) to get their eye surgeries done.

More new restaurants opening — In his 2022 recap, John mentions just how much response we got online when we announced that Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant was coming to S.R. 56, but it isn’t the only new restaurant we can look forward to opening in 2023. Although it hasn’t begun building yet, I’m hopeful that Rodizio Grill, The Brazilian Steakhouse, will open before the end of 2023 on the Wesley Chapel Blvd. extension, next to At Home. Other restaurants expected to open in 2023 (that we already know of) include Crazy Sushi at the Shops at Wiregrass, Shuckin’ Shack Oyster Bar (in the same plaza as Chicken Salad Chick) and Pho 54 (in the former location of Sweetea Café on S.R. 56; see pg. 36). These are just the ones we know for sure are coming, but of course, you know we’ll keep you posted about any and all others.

More road projects — In addition to the new interchange off I-75 at Overpass Rd., which could open before the end of 2022, John’s 2022 recap story on pages 4 & 6 also mentions the widening of S.R. 54 from east of Curley Rd. to Eiland Blvd./Morris Bridge Rd., the Zephyrhills Bypass and the opening of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. to S.R. 54 as other road projects expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

However, 2023 also is expected to see the completion of the improvements just south of the S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. intersection and hopefully, the start of anticipated improvements to Wesley Chapel Blvd. between S.R. 56 and S.R. 54. All we’ve seen so far on Wesley Chapel Blvd. is the addition of one new traffic signal on this dangerous two-lane road, which also is adding some new apartments near Lexington Oaks and some new commercial properties across from Total Wine & More. We definitely plan to provide an update on everything planned for Wesley Chapel Blvd. during the first few months of 2023.

And…We’ll also check in to see how new District 2 (which includes much of Wesley Chapel) Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman is doing in his first few months in office; how the dispute between Pasco and RADDSports at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus (see story on pg. 8) gets resolved; and the planned opening of the first neo-traditional buildings in downtown Avalon Park on S.R. 54…and more.

In other words, keep reading for all the news of another busy year in Wesley Chapel!

BayCare

Baycare Breaks Ground On Second WC Hospital

Wesley Chapel may be known for its growth and burgeoning housing and restaurant markets, but by 2023, it also will be home to two major hospitals.

On Dec. 2, BayCare held a cere-monial groundbreaking event — construction had already previously begun — before a small crowd of BayCare executives, local politicians and invited community members.

The 86-bed, state-of-the-art hospital is scheduled to be completed in early 2023. According to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, planned are 30 medical/surgical inpatient beds, 12 critical care inpatient beds and 10 emergency department beds.

“While 2020 has been an unprecedented year for health care that has called for tough decisions and creative solutions, we are grateful to celebrate the long-term goals that brought us to this moment,” said BayCare Chairman of the Board Eric Obeck at the ribbon cutting. “I’m proud to be part of an organization that keeps setting the pace, even as we react to the coronavirus’ impact on our daily business.”

The new hospital will be located at the northwest corner of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Boulevard and Eagleston Blvd. in Seven Oaks, which is just two miles north of AdventHealth Wesley Chapel, which opened as Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel in 2012.

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel will offer comprehensive medical services and health care resources, including an emergency department, an intensive care unit with virtual-monitoring beds, diagnostic services such as an imaging department and lab, as well as physical rehabilitation.

BayCare also touts the jobs the new facility will bring to Pasco County. Roughly 500 combined employees will work on constructing the 318,000-square-foot hospital, and then staffing it. According to BayCare, it is investing $246 million in Pasco County.

“Across our system, it is the nearly 30,000 people who work here that make BayCare a great place to work,” said BayCare executive vice president and chief operating officer Glenn Waters. “At the same time, we are proud our patient outcomes are among the best as well.”

BayCare purchased 34.6 acres of the planned new site for $15 million in 2006, and then paid $6.67 million for an adjoining 19.9-acre parcel in 2007, for a combined $21.67 million.

Also in 2007, BayCare purchased an 18.25-acres parcel of land across Eagleston and west of BBD in Wiregrass Ranch for $9.4 million, opening the door for possible expansion.

The company originally met with county planners in 2018, looking to build a 60-bed acute care hospital on an 111-acre site it had planned to acquire in the northeast quadrant of the future I-75 exit at Overpass Rd. — construction of which has not yet begun.

“To the leaders here planning new construction in the midst of a pandemic, I thank you,” Waters said. “To the elected officials who have joined us today and who are balancing so many unforeseen challenges this year, I thank you. And, to the local community members who have endured a year like no other, I thank you. We look forward to getting to know each other as BayCare grows along with Pasco County.”

BayCare hospital