Dr. Ronika N. Newbold (left) and BayCare Wesley Chapel Hospital president Nanette Wilcox shared the scissors while cutting the ribbon at the new BayCare Medical Group offices inside the hospital. (All photos on this page by Joel Provenzano)
Congratulations to the new BayCare Medical Group (BMG), which celebrated its Grand Opening on the second floor of BayCare Wesley Chapel Hospital (4501 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Suite 205) with a North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon-cutting event on May 8.
(l.-r.) Dr. Newbold, BayCare Medical Group director of operations for specialty care Jennifer Jusino, Dr. Vaswani and North Tampa Bay Chamber president & CEO Hope Kennedy.
The new BMG office currently features three medical specialties — General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery and Family Medicine. According to site manager Rjaye Lowe, who led us on a tour of the 8,600 sq. ft. of new offices, the BayCare Medical Group may expand to an additional floor and specialties in the future. Considering that the entire BayCare system has more than 1,100 providers in 54 specialties, that seems like a pretty safe bet.
“We have the space to continue to grow and expand beyond the current specialties and we are anticipating adding cardiology in the near future,” Lowe said.
The X-ray room at BayCare Medical Group’s offices located inside the hospital.
He added, “Over 30 rooms are dedicated to the BayCare Medical Group General & Orthopedic Surgery and Primary Care,” Lowe said. “The benefit to it being in the hospital is that everything is in one location, in just one building. Having the physicians in-house means that patients can get their lab work and imaging services done all in one location.”
Three physicians were introduced during the ribbon-cutting event, with each of them heading up one of the three BMG specialties now available inside the hospital.
(l.-r.) General surgeon Dr. Sahand Bamarni, BayCare Medical Group primary care site manager Alexa Jordan, Dr. Newbold, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ravi Vaswani and BayCare Medical Group site manager Rjaye Lowe at the Grand Opening of the BayCare Medical Group office.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ravi Vaswani can treat patients as young as 12 years old, while general surgeon Dr. Sahand Bamarni and Family Medicine Dr. Ronika N. Newbold see patients ages 18 and older. All three physicians expressed their excitement about being part of the opening of the new BMG offices inside the 86-bed hospital (which also has room to grow).
The new medical offices are designed to provide integrated, patient-centered care, offering residents greater access to primary and specialty services within the BayCare network.
BayCare Wesley Chapel Hospital president Nanette Wilcox said, “We’re very excited to officially open our new BMG offices. As we continue to grow our footprint here in Wesley Chapel, we’re committed to providing seamless access to high-quality care for the community, and this is a big step in that direction.”
Of course, there already is a BMG office on S.R. 54, in the same plaza as Glory Days Grill, but according to BayCare spokesperson Cherie Miller, “The doctors at the S.R. 54 office will be unaffected. The only change is that their patients will now have the added benefit of being able to utilize the new outpatient imaging and lab services at the hospital.”
For more info about BayCare Wesley Chapel Hospital and BMG, visit BayCare.org.
NTBC Ribbon Cutting Opened The State-Of-The-Art, 45,000-Sq.-Ft. Cancer Center In Wiregrass Ranch On May 15!
The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new 45,000-sq.-ft. Florida Cancer Specialists (FCS) building off S.R. 56 in Wiregrass Ranch on May 15 was more than just another Grand Opening event. It expands Wesley Chapel’s reputation as a health-care hub, now with two major cancer treatment centers. (Photos by Charmaine George)
Although the Angeline community in Land O’Lakes is getting what will be the largest cancer treatment and research center in Florida — the sprawling, 775-acre “Speros FL” Moffitt Cancer Center campus with 16 million square feet of lab, office, manufacturing and clinical space, the new Florida Cancer Specialists (FCS) building on the south side of S.R. 56 in Wiregrass Ranch gives the Wesley Chapel area two major cancer centers (the other is the 28,000 sq. ft. being occupied by the Moffitt Cancer Center at Wesley Chapel in the 100,000-sq.-ft. Healing Plaza building adjacent to AdventHealth Wesley Chapel).
But, the 45,000-sq.-ft. FCS building, located only 3.5 miles from the AdventHealth/ Moffitt center, is now the largest cancer treatment facility in Wesley Chapel.
Samantha (Sam) Watkins
FCS cut the ribbon (in conjunction with the North Tampa Bay Chamber, or NTBC) to officially open the new state-of-the-art treatment center on May 15, as the location’s VP of operations Samantha (Sam) Watkins introduced director of patient advocacy (and Board-certified oncologist and hematologist) Richard McDonough, M.D. (holding scissors in the photo on this page), who introduced several of his colleagues, including medical oncologist Dr. Ayman Barakat, radiation oncologist Dr. Bradford Perez and GYN (gynecologic) oncologist Dr. Jessica Stine to the crowd of more than 100 people, many of whom were FCS doctors, staff members and administrators.
Watkins mentioned that the new FCS clinic will include five medical oncologists and hematologists, two radiation oncologists, six advance practice nursing providers and a “dedicated group of clinicians and support staff.”
Watkins also provided a lot of the basic information about FCS in general, including that in 2024, FCS celebrated its 40th anniversary of cancer care in the Sunshine State, when FCS treated more than 102,000 new patients and provided more than 4.2 million clinic visits.
The new FCS facility in Wiregrass Ranch has 62 infusion chairs.
“One statistic that I find incredible,” Watkins said, “is that 67 percent of all Floridians live within 20 miles of an FCS center, which serves our mission of being in the community.”
And, although Moffitt is still the highest-rated cancer treatment center overall in Florida, FCS also ranks among the top-performing oncology practices and offers more clinical trials than any other private oncology practice in Florida. And, according to Dr. Barakat (see more from him below), the new Wiregrass Ranch location should soon be hosting clinical trials of its own.
Dr. Richard McDonough
Watkins noted, “More than 150 clinical trials are [being conducted] at our 29 locations across the state…. With our expanded capabilities to provide state-of-the-art genetic testing, our physicians are able to design treatment plans with the utmost precision and provide truly personalized medicine, which translates into better outcomes for our patients.”
Meanwhile, Dr. McDonough said, “My colleagues and I share a passion and dedication to a singular goal to provide our patients with the most advanced treatments possible that are personalized to the unique needs of what they have. We try to minimize the disruption [to their lives] by making sure we are closer to where they live and that the patient can get the care with the support people and community around them, and really to be a big part of driving the best outcomes for our patients.”
Dr. Ayman Barakat
Dr. Barakat provided some additional statistics about the new FCS facility, and the difference between the new building and the original Wesley Chapel location that opened in 2019. “We only had four exam rooms and seven infusion chairs,” he said. “But now, we have 32 exam rooms, 62 infusion chairs, and offer expert treatment for all forms of cancer and blood disorders. We have an on-site lab, our own oncology pharmacy care coordinator, services with patient assistance through our generous foundation, and, of course, access to the most advanced and promising treatment through clinical trials, which hopefully we should be planning to start in this building very shortly.”
Dr. Bradford Perez
Dr. Perez, a lifelong Tampa native, talked about the team approach to patient care at FCS.
“One of the things about FCS is that it does give us the opportunity to work together as part of a multidisciplinary oncology team and as a radiation oncologist you know I’m really glad to have an opportunity to work with the medical oncologists here at FCS. This location has state-of-the-art equipment, like the Varian TrueBeamTM machine, which does precise, stereotactic radiation treatments.”
Dr. Perez also noted that, “Wesley Chapel is a big growth area, so it’s great to be able to provide great care for patients, with the most advanced technology, where people are moving and living.”
Dr. Jessica Stine
Next, Dr. Stine said that when she joined FCS four years ago, “My goal was to bring GYN oncology, which is a unique specialty that doesn’t have a lot of growth outside of city centers, to areas where patients really needed to have access to high-quality care. I felt that it was really kind of a shame that patients [in suburban areas] had to essentially go to the ‘ivory tower’ to get their surgeries and the care they needed.”
She added, “We are also very excited to announce that we will be expanding the GYN oncology program within FCS with Dr. Heather Miller, who is actually joining us locally from her very thriving practice in the Brandon and Tampa Bay market. She will be caring for our patients here in Wesley Chapel and in North Tampa as well.”
Hope Kennedy
The final speaker before the ribbon cutting was NTBC president & CEO Hope Kennedy, who said, “It is an honor to be here with you today. We broke ground in 2019, right before the pandemic, on a cold, windy day. We saw the renderings of what this [facility] was going to be. We could not be more honored to be here by your side. The community is here to support you. We thank you for your investment, not only in this beautiful building, but also for the service you provide to our community.”
FCS (2895 Hueland Pond Blvd.) is open every weekday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. For more info, call (813) 279-7107 or visit FLCancer.com.
The Varian TrueBeamTM machine actually rotates around the patient to provide precise radiation treatments.
The site plan for the PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Wiregrass Ranch. (All of these graphics were submitted to Pasco County)
Back in December, Wiregrass Ranch submitted plans for an a new east/west access road through parcel M3 (see map, bottom right), which was intended to help provide access to a proposed new PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital and future outparcels. This road will connect with Bruce B Downs (BBD) Blvd., at the directional median opening that aligns with Stockton Dr. on the other side of BBD.
The location map for the PAM Rehab Hospital.
In the future ultimate build-out, it’s intended that this road might be punched through the wetland and connected directly as an extension to the existing Bella Corsa Blvd in Estancia at Wiregrass. This extension will serve two functions —
1) to give residents direct vehicular and pedestrian access to the large commercial developments and reduce traffic on the main roads, and 2) to give residents an alternative way to access BBD.
The plans for the Parcel M3 access road and future commercial.
The proposed PAM Health Rehab Hospital will be located immediately north of the Amberlin Apartments site (on the other side of the natural wetland pond) and, even though the plans don’t currently show it, it will be required to be cross connected to Amberlin and the small commercial retail outparcel to the south (M3 Outparcel B site) with a small road, which will allow this rehab hospital (and all of the future Wiregrass commercial) to have access to the signal at Eagleston Blvd. upon ultimate buildout.
Plans for the small retail outparcel to the south show this future cross connection which also would include sidewalk access. This retail development (Outparcel B) will be a small multi-tenant plaza whose future tenants are currently unknown but could be a mix of retail and a small restaurant.
In addition, construction plans for the Ace Medical Plaza (M3 Outparcel C) were just submitted to the county in February. This site is located immediately in front of Amberlin and will be a two-story, 15,000 sq.-ft. building occupying Outparcel C of the Wiregrass development, at the southeast corner of BBD and Eagleston Blvd.
These are just a few of the roughly 4,000 people who showed up for BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel’s community open house on Feb. 18. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
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.
The new BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel (rendering above) should be completed by 2023, which means Wesley Chapel will have two hospitals within two miles of each other on BBD Blvd.
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.”
