A major expansion for the Florida Hospital network, part of the Adventist Health System, is underway in Tampa Bay with the company planning to spend $600 million over the next three years to make acquisitions and renovations to current operations.

“Tampa is a growing market and one of the staples of a growing community is health care,” said Florida Hospital CEO Michael Schultz. The strategy of the health and hospital company is to follow the population growth in the region as the corridors of Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 fill up with new residents. “We believe we need to follow those arteries, both north and south.”

Adventist’s Florida Hospital network maps out its growth by using predictive modeling based on government information such as new building permits, Schultz explained. “We don’t want to jump from Tampa Bay to Sarasota without a strategy for growing in that direction.”

Consider one of Adventist’s most recent moves. It recently renamed the 120-bed Bayfront Health Dade City Hospital to Florida Hospital Dade City and brought Bayfront’s physician clinic operations and outpatient services into its system.

Yet, the biggest project to come will be Florida Hospital Tampa’s Tampa Tower at a cost of approximately $300 million. The tower will provide more beds, operating rooms and parking. Located at Fletcher Avenue and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, the project “is going to change the landscape of the that corner,” Schultz said. It will mean more permanent jobs in addition to the construction work that will go to local contractors, he said. “This is going to transform this area of the North Tampa market.”

Frances McMorris Apr 23, 2018, 3:12pm