Morton Plant North Bay Hospital says it wants to maintain its presence in New Port Richey.
By MELIA BOWIE
Published April 1, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - Despite plans to relocate to Trinity, administrators at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital are looking at their second expansion project within the city.
The message: "We will maintain this site as a health care facility," spokeswoman Beth Hardy said Monday.
"If we are fortunate enough to be able to relocate the hospital, this site will continue to be a medical use," she said of the Madison Street property.
Hospital officials listed long-term care or clinical services as examples of future uses but said they were not ready to say what services would remain in New Port Richey.
In the meantime, conceptual plans for a one-story, 3,500-square-foot medical office building on North Bay's existing downtown property received preliminary approval late last week from the city's Development Review Committee.
"I'm taking a look at whether we could fit a small, modular office building here," said Bill Jennings, chief operating officer of Morton Plant North Bay.
Administrators still are evaluating whether the structure - possibly a medical office building - would fit on Forest Avenue across from the hospital.
"I have people calling and saying, "I'd really like to be next to the hospital,' but there's no room," Jennings said.
The proposal is the second expansion effort by North Bay, which announced plans to leave the city in February 2002, as did Community Hospital.
However, North Bay recently signed a $450,000 contract with Pasco County to buy a 1-acre site on Forest Avenue that's now occupied by the county Health Department.
The County Commission is set to hear the proposed agreement April 9.
The potential loss of critical care if both North Bay and Community Hospital leave continues to trouble local leaders. Both hospitals were granted state permission to move last year after they cited cramped conditions and plans to build state-of-the-art facilities to better serve the public.
But officials in New Port Richey said North Bay's plans to gain more space in the city indicate things may not be as financially dire as initially feared.
"One of the things Morton Plant prides itself on from what I've seen is (that it) never abandons its post," said city redevelopment manager Gerald Paradise.
Added Fred Metcalf, director of development services for the city: "North Bay seems to think they'll still remain here in some other form. There will still be some medical use."
That means there still will be workers to patronize area businesses.
The fate of the hospital's current 122-bed building remains unclear.
Administrators said their current location was a temporary one as North Bay worked to establish itself in west Pasco.
Plans to move into Trinity were 10 years in the making, Jennings said. The current Madison Street building in New Port Richey "was essentially a step to move this hospital there."
But those plans do not negate North Bay's mission to serve the existing community, he added.
"Even though this hospital is going to be rebuilt at Trinity, we have to continue the standard of care here in the next three or four years."
- Melia Bowie covers business in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6229, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6229. Her e-mail address is bowie@sptimes.com
[Last modified April 1, 2003, 05:26:39]
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