Hospitals expand to beat the rush

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 16, 2000

As Pasco County grows, with the anticipated opening of the Suncoast Parkway expected to spur an influx of businesses and homes, local health care providers are struggling to keep pace with the increasing demand for care.

Emergency rooms are adding beds, hospitals are undertaking multimillion-dollar expansions, and doctors are devising strategies to streamline their services.

"The area's growing so darn fast it's hard to keep up with it," said Chris Hyers, spokesman for Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, which is in the midst of a $40-million expansion that is expected to be completed by early next year.

The expansion, Hyers said, includes 34 new beds to go with the hospital's current 256 beds, plus 300 new parking spaces, a free-standing diagnostic imaging center and "a ton of internal renovations."

"We're a 256-bed hospital taking care of one of the fastest-growing parts of Pasco County," Hyers said, also pointing to the hospital's heart program as a major force in drawing patients.

Hospitals are especially jammed during the winter months, when the tourist population is at its height. "When the snowbirds are here, we're packed to the rafters," Hyers said.

In addition to keeping up with current populations, Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point is also anticipating future booms. "We can't have the people show up and then do (the expansion)," Hyers said. "We've got to be ready for them."

Other hospitals are growing, too.

In the next weeks, East Pasco Medical Center in Zephyrhills hopes to complete the expansion of its emergency room to nearly twice its current size, a $3.1-million project.

During winter months, the population in Zephyrhills and surrounding areas swells to 90,000 to 95,000, or twice its normal size, and the number of patients jumped 12 percent last year from the year before, said hospital spokesman Jerry Sterner.

North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey is adding a cardiac catheterization lab, expected to open later this year, and it is considering an expansion of its emergency room, orthopedics and rehabilitative services.

Meanwhile, a group of local doctors, aiming to offer one-stop shopping for patients, is teaming with developers to build a $4-million medical complex at the northern end of Zimmerman Road in Hudson, where a crumbling parking lot sits.

The two-story, 34,000-square-foot complex will hold X-ray facilities and orthopedic, neurology, dermatology, eye care and physical therapy offices on the bottom floor, while the top floor will have offices for nine primary care physicians.

"We all came together for practical purposes," said Dr. K. Ravi, one of the Hudson doctors who plans to move his practice into the complex. By a conservative estimate, Ravi said, each of the nine doctors will serve about 1,500 patients.

"We're not affiliated with any hospital, HMO, anything -- we're our own bosses," Ravi said. "Nobody's subsidizing us."

He added, "If this proves to be successful, I wouldn't be surprised if other doctors planned to get together. I'm sure people are watching us closely."

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