Local hospital to spend half-billion on upgrades

Tampa General Hospital has begun its largest facilities upgrade and expansion in its 116-year history — a series of projects totaling $550 million scheduled for completion by 2026.

Details were announced in a four-page press release that touts the work as the hospital attempts “to become one of the safest and most innovative academic health systems in America.”

The plan, Kelly Cullen, executive vice president and COO at the hospital, says in the release “allows us to invest in innovation and supports the creation of tomorrow.”

“We are truly building the future.”

To that end, Tampa General already finished one of the major upgrades: A $17.5 million intensive care unit that opened in June. The ICU has 34 rooms and about 27,500 square feet in space. Each of the rooms can become negative air pressure rooms to better care for patients with infectious diseases.

The unit, hospital officials say, also has “patient rooms of the future.” According to the release, these are rooms equipped with advanced care technologies. These rooms allow doctors and nurses to provide virtual care where patients can “connect with their family/loved ones as well as physicians” and “support emergency events that uses technology in the rooms by automating code blue identification.”

The ICU increases the numbers of available beds at the hospital to 1,041.

In addition to the ICU, here are some of the other projects in the works at TGH:

• Addition of four floors to Tampa General’s Bayshore Pavilion above the emergency room. This will add 12 new operating rooms and 100 new beds.
• Expansion and renovation of the regional burn center to increase the size of rooms and provide more efficient layouts and a new design. Work is underway and is scheduled to be done in May.
• Renovation of the main operating room suite to revamp operating rooms and modernize and upgrade equipment.
• Construction of a 15,000-square-foot freestanding emergency department on Kennedy Boulevard and North Willow Avenue, about a mile from the main hospital, to provide additional capacity. Construction is underway.
• Addition of new clinic space to TGH Brandon Healthplex Oncology Institute to integrate oncology services to create a hub for diagnostic testing, treatments and support services.

Tampa General also plans to build a corporate parking garage, expand its energy plant and buy Hillsborough Community College's Davis Islands building, which is next to the main hospital campus.