ZEPHYRHILLS - With a growing need for medical office space, officials at East Pasco Medical Center said they have found the perfect place to build more: on top of the existing hospital.
The plans are to begin construction on a roughly 70,000-square-foot medical office building starting in spring 2004, hospital spokesman Jerry Sterner said.
The complex would stretch three stories high and would fit atop the hospital's ground-level surgery center and the wellness center just above it.
Physicians will be able to admit patients directly from their offices to the hospital, Sterner said.
The idea behind the complex's location is to build loyalty among physicians and patients to East Pasco Medical Center.
The center is owned by Adventist Health System in Winter Park. The nonprofit organization runs 36 hospitals for the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The arrangement also will be more efficient, officials said, noting that in-house physicians will be able to go downstairs or next door to use the hospital's X-ray and medical equipment instead of installing their own.
The offices would also cut travel for doctors, Sterner said. "It means quicker care." Sterner said he does not yet know how many offices will be built in the complex or the cost of the project. He said it just went out to bid.
The hospital recently added nine physicians to its listed directory of about 135. Donald Welch, the hospital's chief financial officer, was out of town Tuesday along with East Pasco Medical Center CEO Scott Pittman. Neither could be reached for comment about the project.
The hospital will also launch its new open-heart surgery center, scheduled to break ground aptly on Feb. 14. The heart center will cost about $22-million and include an expanded emergency room.
Adventist Health also is planning to build a new, full-service hospital by 2007 in Wesley Chapel.
Officials with the nonprofit system bought 50 acres in March from the Porter family, owners of the 5,000-acre Wiregrass Ranch, for $5-million.
The proposed site sits east of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, about a quarter-mile north of State Road 56. However, the plans must still be approved by the state Agency for Health Care Administration. If that happens, the facility would be built in phases. It would ultimately stand seven stories tall. Officials project the area needs 300 hospital beds. It would be the first hospital in central Pasco, plugging a 40-mile gap between East Pasco Medical Center in Zephyrhills and Community Hospital in New Port Richey.
