PLANT
CITY, Fla., Aug. 10,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The new South Florida Baptist
Hospital, part of BayCare Health System, is officially open. The
424,000-square-foot facility replaces the original hospital on
Alexander Street, which served the Plant
City, Florida, community for more than 70 years.
As of 3 a.m. Saturday, the legacy
hospital permanently closed and operational control shifted to the
new, state-of-the-art hospital located at 3202 N. Park Rd. off
Interstate 4 in Plant City, only
four miles from the original location.
Ambulances stood ready in the pre-dawn hours to transfer 67
patients to the new hospital. The highly coordinated event, which
concluded at 9:10 a.m., went off
seamlessly thanks to the help of IMH health care consultants,
community partners in law enforcement, fire and rescue, transport
services and dozens of BayCare team members.
"I am extremely pleased with how the process went today with all
patients being safely transported from the legacy hospital to the
new hospital," said South Florida Baptist Hospital President
Karen Kerr. "We planned for this
transition for more than a year and it's wonderful to see the
payoff of all the work that went into this extraordinary task."
Plant City native Wanda Garrett was among the patients transferred
to the new hospital during today's move. She visited South Florida
Baptist Hospital's legacy emergency department on Thursday after
experiencing chest pain and underwent a cardiac catheterization
shortly after arriving at the new location, the first patient to
receive the treatment there. Garrett has been watching the new
hospital's construction and is happy for the community to have a
new facility.
"I was awake at 4:30, up and excited to go. I think I was more
excited than the employees. I wanted to see the new building,
though not really under these circumstances. I always thought about
a tour, but not as a patient," Garrett laughed. "But they needed
this new building, especially for the work they had to do on
me."
Michael Sutherland, a Lutz
resident, will soon have surgery on a leg that was partially
amputated years ago. He has undergone several surgeries at South
Florida Baptist Hospital, and noted every patient experience with
BayCare has been extraordinary.
"This has been a difficult part of life, but it has been made
much easier by the care [I received]," said Sutherland. "The
compassion and professionalism of the staff here—I couldn't
recommend this hospital more. Everybody here has been amazing."
Areas of specialization include general surgery, orthopedic
surgery, urology, imaging, cardiac catheterization, emergency care
and labor/delivery. The hospital also features an
85,000-square-foot medical arts building with space for physician
offices, as well as outpatient and diagnostic services such as
imaging, rehabilitation and lab services, allowing patients to
consolidate their health care needs in one location.
The $326-million South Florida
Baptist Hospital is the newest of BayCare's 16 hospitals serving
West Central Florida.
About BayCare Health System
BayCare is a leading not-for-profit health care system that
connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 16
hospitals, including a children's hospital, and hundreds of other
convenient locations throughout the Tampa
Bay and West Central Florida regions. The system is
West Central Florida's largest provider of behavioral health and
pediatric services and its provider group, BayCare Medical Group,
is one of the largest in the region. BayCare's diverse
network of ambulatory services includes laboratories, imaging,
surgical centers, BayCare Urgent Care locations, wellness centers
and one of Florida's largest home
care agencies, BayCare HomeCare. In 2023, BayCare was ranked in the
top quartile of large U.S. health systems by Fortune/PINC AI based
on clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and patient
experience. BayCare's mission is to improve the health of all it
serves through community-owned, health care services that set the
standard for high-quality, compassionate care. For more
information, visit www.BayCare.org.
About South Florida Baptist Hospital
Since 1953, South Florida Baptist Hospital has served
Plant City and surrounding areas
as a not-for-profit community hospital. The progressive, acute care
facility offers a full range of diagnostic, rehabilitative,
surgical, therapeutic and women's services, including obstetrics.
The 146-bed South Florida Baptist Hospital, part of BayCare Health
System, is located at 3202 N. Park Road, Plant City, Fla. 33563. The new,
state-of-the-art hospital, which opened in August 2024, replaced the original facility on
Alexander Street in Plant City
which served the community for more than 70 years. For more
information, visit SouthFloridaBaptist.org.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/south-florida-baptist-hospitals-grand-opening-ushers-in-new-beginning-302219344.html
SOURCE South Florida Baptist Hospital