Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) is virtually ready for another grand opening. Oops. Make that ready for a virtual grand opening.
After drawing an estimated crowd of 8,000 people to its initial Grand Opening in 2012, FHWC is set to unveil its new $78-million, 118,000-sq.-ft. expansion to the general public via social media. FHWC marketing director Tracy Clouser says that because the hospital now has patients being treated everywhere, it isn’t possible to allow thousands to stroll through the corridors, checking out the new rooms and advances in technology.
However, everyone can still attend the Grand Opening of the expansion virtually, via both YouTube and Facebook, on Monday, February 6, 10 a.m.-11 a.m. Clouser says the public will even be given the opportunity to ask questions of FHWC CEO Denyse Bales-Chubb.
“We’ll be showcasing some of the areas people wouldn’t ordinarily get to see,’’ Clouser said during an interview with Neighborhood News editor Gary Nager for the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Featured Business Segment on WCNT-tv, which hit YouTube on Jan. 6. She added that those who RSVP will get the first look at some of the expansion that is expected to even further enhance the hospital’s standing in the local (see pg 3) and medical community.
FHWC, constructed in the shape of a “W” with North, Center and South wings, is doubling the size of the Center wing, which now has six floors instead of the original three. A three-story connector wing, called the “Southeast Connector,” between the Center and South wings, also is nearly complete.
The extra floors will allow the hospital to expand from 83 private patient rooms to 143.
Emergency room space also is nearly doubling, from 18 rooms to 35. That may be the best news for area residents, as even the influx of urgent care centers in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa hasn’t stopped the FHWC emergency rooms from overflowing some days.
Clouser said there was no true original timetable to expand, but the top brass with FHWC’s parent company, the Adventist Health System originally estimated there would be a need for expansion within 5-7 years when FHWC first opened. But, the unrelenting brisk business at the hospital hastened the need for expansion to within only three years.
“We have been very, very busy,’’ Clouser says. “Obviously, there has been a need in this area for quality healthcare close to home for (local) people.”
Even More Technology
The new patient rooms at FHWC are Cerner Smart Rooms, which offer better workflows for hospital personnel, with instant bedside access to real-time data for doctors, while providing better communication between patients, their providers and visitors.
Visitors will be able to see if the patient is with their doctor, resting or does not want to be disturbed before entering the room, while FHWC staff will know, for example, which of their patients have allergies or are fall risks.
“It’s all right at their fingertips outside the room,’’ Clouser says, adding that the older rooms at FHWC will be retrofitted with the Cerner technology as well.
The new rooms also have the Get Well Network, another technology that bridges the gap between patients and doctors and empowers patients and their caregivers to participate in their healthcare. It also helps track the care patients are receiving — like dosages of medicine or blood tests — while they may be sleeping, right down to knowing when hospital personnel are washing and sanitizing their hands.
Clouser also said that some of the expansion already has been completed. A second heart catheterization lab opened in March, and a new wing with 20 additional beds in the Southeast wing opened in October. That third-floor wing will be an all-women’s wing when all of the other new rooms have opened, all expected by the end of this month or early in February.
The majority of the new rooms and technologies will be on the new fifth and sixth floors. Clouser also said that, for now, the fourth floor will remain as shell space, until future growth dictates adding 24 more patient rooms. Until then, the fourth floor will feature conference and classrooms that will host many of the free community health and wellness programs FHWC currently hosts at the hospital’s adjacent Wellness Center.
Clouser also noted that the expansion, which will be completed by the end of the month or early in February, will attract new physicians offering new procedures, since FHWC will now have more space in the new operating rooms. “That means new treatments, new services and new programs,’’ Clouser says.
Doctors also will soon have access to the MAKO platform, which is a robotic-arm-assisted system that can perform orthopaedic surgeries like partial knee or hip replacements. FHWC also has the daVinci System, another robotic-assisted device that specializes in minimally invasive surgery, such as removing a gall bladder or performing a hysterectomy through a patient’s belly button.
“We are the only site in Pasco County able to do that,’’ Clouser said “Surgeons like it because it’s minimally invasive, there’s less scarring, less pain, shorter recovery times and less blood.”
FHWC also will feature a tech room that allows doctors to enter via keyboard the patient’s name and type of surgery being performed, prompting a shelf to open up that provides all of the tools needed to perform that particular operation.
To RSVP for the virtual FHWC expansion Grand Opening, please visit FHInspiredByYou.com. The event will be on YouTube and Facebook, on Mon., Feb. 6, 10 a.m.-11 a.m. Check out the drone footage and much more inside FHWC from Brad Hall Studios on Episode 14 of WCNT-tv on YouTube now!
