Neighbors may like the convenience of Tampa General Hospital, but its expansion plans are meeting local opposition.
By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published April 22, 2005
DAVIS ISLANDS - For years, Davis Islands residents have had a love/hate relationship with Tampa General Hospital.
They love the convenience of having a top-notch hospital minutes from their house.
They hate the traffic and the hospital's encroachment into their neighborhood, with its distinctive beach-town feel.
Most have managed to coexist with the hospital, which preceded most houses on Davis Islands and dominates the community's north end. People like Bunny Smith say the pros of the hospital outweigh the cons.
"My husband had a heart attack. Boom. I was here in five seconds. My son needed an emergency appendectomy. Boom. We were here in five seconds," Smith said. "I appreciate the fact that we have such a great hospital on Davis Islands."
Hospital officials hope others feel that way when it comes to supporting the hospital's plans for the future.
The hospital is asking the city to rezone land for a parking garage on a piece of Marjorie Park and a new office building on the hospital campus. It also wants permission to add a floor to the expansion currently under construction.
The City Council normally meets Thursday nights but set a special meeting for Tuesday to have plenty of time for what members anticipate will be a lengthy debate.
Members of the Davis Islands Civic Association's board of directors have vowed to fight.
"It's the precedent," said Denise Cassedy during a April 6 open house about the hospital's plans. "You don't give park land for parking garages. It's bad public policy."
But TGH president Ron Hytoff said the hospital needs more space and has no place else to grow.
"We have no choice," he said. "For us to continue to meet community and regional needs, we have to have more facilities. We're maxed out."
Tampa General Hospital enjoys a reputation throughout the region as the place to get the most specialized medical care, in part because of its connection to experts at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. USF physicians care for nearly 60 percent of patients admitted to the hospital.
The emergency room serves residents in South and central Tampa, and its Level 1 trauma center handles all of the West Coast region's most seriously injured people. The private, nonprofit hospital also remains committed to serving patients without insurance, a carryover from its days as a public hospital.
It opened in 1927 when Tampa had fewer than 100,000 residents. Since then, the hospital has grown from 174,914 to 1.3-million square feet to keep up with an expanding population. It now serves more than 4-million people in a 12-county region.
In 1984, the hospital added a 633,291-square-foot West Pavilion, which houses operating rooms, laboratories and most patient rooms.
In 2003, city officials approved a five-story, more than 280,000-square-foot addition that will house an emergency room, intensive care beds and labor-and-delivery suites.
Construction on the $100-million project began in September. To alleviate residents' concerns about the expansion's impact on traffic, the hospital agreed to upgrade surrounding roads and improve pedestrian safety.
A year later, residents balked again when the hospital announced it wanted to add a floor to its previously approved expansion, construct an approximately 125,000-square-foot building and erect a seven-story, 1,400-space parking garage on less than half an acre of waterfront parkland.
In exchange, the hospital offered to spend $1-million to help implement a vision plan adopted by the Davis Islands Neighborhood Task Force and extend a previously planned linear parkway.
The latest growth spurt will help solidify the hospital's relationship with USF, Hytoff said. The office building would be the first USF has built on the TGH campus.
USF doctors who now rent office and clinic space around the hospital will move into the new building, medical school spokesman Michael Hoad said. Putting all the physicians in one building will make the USF system easier to use, he said. The building also will provide educational and research space.
At one point, the hospital considered moving closer to USF. In 1998, the hospital bought land on Fowler Avenue near the medical school, but plans to relocate there fell through.
Now the hospital wants to sell the Fowler site to USF for the approximately $8-million it paid for it and donate the money back to the university for its new building on Davis Islands.
USF officials haven't accepted the offer yet.
Hospital officials have spent the past several months meeting with Davis Islands residents and groups in preparation for next week's meeting. Last week, the Davis Islands Chamber of Commerce endorsed the hospital's latest plans.
Still, not everyone is convinced Tampa General has to take over city parkland. Brochures advertising for a "Save the Davis Islands Waterfront Park" event on Sunday at the Davis Islands Garden Club say: "If this rezoning is approved, where will it stop?"
Steve Stanley, president of the Davis Islands Civic Association, said the hospital should explore alternatives.
"In looking at their site plan, I think they do have other spaces on their campus to expand," he said. "They need to get some professionals to take another look. They do have other options."
The City Council has scheduled a public hearing for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the City Hall, 315 E Kennedy Blvd., to consider a request by Tampa General Hospital to rezone land for a parking garage and a new building, and add a floor to the expansion now under construction.
ABOUT THE HOSPITAL
Tampa General Hospital serves more than 4-million people in a 12-county region.
The hospital is the primary teaching hospital for the University of South Florida College of Medicine.
TGH has 818 hospital room beds and 59 rehabilitation center beds. The expansion will not increase the number of beds.
TGH has 36 operating rooms, including six for cardiac patients and four for obstetrics. The expansion will add six operating rooms, four of which will be used right away.
30,207 patients were discharged from the hospital in fiscal year 2003-04.
64,843 adults went to the emergency room in FY 2003-04.
