Medical Center of Trinity's Expected November Opening Brings It Closer to Central Pasco

When the Medical Center of Trinity opens its doors later this year, it will serve a population that's anticipated to continue growing in a location that could attract patients from Central Pasco and beyond.

The new 55-acre Medical Center, now under construction at 9330 State Road 54, is tentatively planning to celebrate its grand opening around Nov. 11 and start treating patients later that month. Part of HCA Healthcare’s West Florida division, the Center is the new home and new name of , which has been located in New Port Richey for roughly four decades.

The relocation to the intersection of Little Road and 54, the six-lane highway connecting east and west Pasco, moves the Trinity hospital closer to a pool of young families and patients from Land O’ Lakes, Lutz and northern Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

“Anybody along that 54 corridor, realistically out to I-75, will most likely find it very convenient…in lieu of either going north to Zephyrhills or south to the Tampa area,” said Leigh Massengill, chief executive officer of Community Hospital and Medical Center of Trinity.  

Acquisition of the land for the Medical Center began in 2004, but construction was delayed, bouncing back after planners saw recovery from the national economic recession 18 months ago. Construction is scheduled to finish in November, with patients moved in later that month. The whole project, comprising the construction and move, comes with a price tag of $195 million.

The Medical Center‘s main hospital tower will have 236 beds, all of which are private, and will occupy 400,000 square feet. Each private room has a 32-inch flat-panel HD TV, bathroom, internet access and space for family. Thirty private beds are in the emergency room.

“[The Center] is a considerably larger building” than Community Hospital, Masssengill said, “but it offers all private accommodations for the patients and then all the support services are of sufficient size and capacity,”

Community Hospital, located at 5637 Marine Parkway, is planning on moving most of its services to the Center.

The Medical Center's services will include an emergency room, heart and vascular treatments, spine and joint surgeries, cancer diagnosis and treatment and women's health programs.

The current plan is to leave an emergency room and psychiatric ward behind at the Community Hospital property in New Port Richey.

“This community [New Port Richey] is a more elderly population, and we’ve kind of focused more on geriatric services in support of those patients and their needs,” Massengill said. Now, the hospital can “capture the younger side of the patient spectrum.” 

Part of catering to that population includes bolstering maternity and obstetrics services. At Community Hospital, patients usually endure the birthing process in a single labor/delivery/ recovery/postpartum room. At Medical Center of Trinity, mothers have access to adhjacent, separate, rooms to recover in after delivery. This means mothers have more room for visitors, and the hospital frees up delivery beds.

The center will have a dedicated pediatric emergency room, Massengill said. Community Hospital’s emergency room offers pediatric care and serves 6,000 kids a year, roughly 20 percent of its patient population, but they’re serviced in the main ER.  In Trinity, children will have nine private, separate rooms .

In addition to a hospital tower, the Medical Center campus will have a 90,000 square foot office building housing a Women’s Diagnostic Center, outpatient surgery center, doctors’ offices and pharmacy. The hospital site plans leave room to build more.

The hospital will have expanded facilities for patients seeking oncology, orthopedic and spine treatment.  There will be a dedicated cafeteria for patients undergoing orthopedic and spine surgery.

John Hagen, president and chief executive officer of the Pasco Economic Development Council, said the new medical center should create positive repercussions for the surrounding community.

“I think that hospitals are terrific traffic generators,” he said "…that will encourage businesses to locate nearby.”

Medical Center of Trinity should maintain Community Hospital’s staffing levels, at least when it first opens, Massengill said. As its patient population grows, and Massengill hopes it makes inroads into the east Pasco corridor, it might hire more staff. 

Not all repercussions of the hospital’s move are positive.  Community is the largest taxpayer and employer in New Port Richey.  The City Council complained to the state about the hospital's plan to leave its psych ward behind in the city, but the hospital was given approval to move ahead.

New Port Richey John Schneiger and Massengill said they met last month for the first time since the objection. And Schneiger is hoping to spin talks off into a partnership between the future Medical Center of Trinity and the city to find a use for the space Community is leaving behind.

“To me, the important thing is not to look back but to look forward and see what the potential is,” he said.

Read more about the discussion on the future of the Community Hospital property later today.