Bayfront Health St Petersburg Announces New Plans

St. Petersburg, FL (February 4, 2021) – Today the leadership team at Bayfront Health St. Petersburg presented to St. Petersburg City Council what they have accomplished since acquiring the hospital October 1, 2020, and shared their vision for the future, including plans for a new façade to the main building.

“After the acquisition, our team’s focus was to identify the most important issues to the hospital and community,” said John Moore, president, Bayfront Health St. Petersburg. “We conducted an extensive listening tour, speaking with team members, patients, and community members. This feedback was critical in understanding the culture and determining what areas needed attention and what changes to make.”

As a result of the listening tour, Bayfront Health St. Petersburg began implementing enhanced staffing and education opportunities, improved work-life balance, targeted career opportunities, and added tuition reimbursement for team members.

Conducting a full quality assessment was also an early priority. Changes were enacted quickly to make certain all team members had more than enough PPE to safely do their jobs, safety protocols were reviewed and upgraded, and new equipment was brought into surgical services.

The next important step in the transformation of the hospital is investing in the quality of the facility. A multidisciplinary team, including Bayfront Health St. Petersburg Hospital leadership and the health system’s asset strategy team, collaborated with local design team, HDR architects, on the process.

HDR architects is currently completing a master plan study to assess numerous aspects of the facility, including operational efficiency, and improving the patient experience. The design team also prepared a study of significant architectural examples in St. Petersburg that provided the basis for the regional context of the hospital facade’s new color scheme and modern coastal design.

The facility master plan study will be complete in late spring. Campus improvements have already begun, and the exterior painting will commence in just a few short weeks. Crews will begin waterproofing the building’s exterior and performing needed repairs before applying fresh paint from the selected color scheme. The process is expected to take approximately three months and will not affect the functioning of the hospital.

Architectural enhancements for the façade will come later. Plans are currently in the early stages and will require additional design review, permitting, and then construction.

“Ultimately, the façade upgrade and repainting project will address the planned maintenance of the building and offer an opportunity to rebrand the facility to convey the high level of quality and service that Bayfront Health St. Petersburg provides to the community,” said Matt Taylor, vice president, asset strategy, Orlando Health, “The addition of a welcoming glass canopy will enhance wayfinding as well as serve as protection from the Florida elements for patients arriving and departing the hospital.”

Hospital leadership continues to review the master planning process to assess future needs pertaining to patient safety and patient access, adjacency within departments, functionality, and to accommodate for future growth.

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a not-for-profit healthcare organization with $7.1 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States.

Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for its pediatric and adult Level One Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level Two Adult Trauma Center in Pinellas County. It is the home of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care unit under one roof, the only system in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health is a statutory teaching system that pioneers life-changing medical research. The 3,200-bed system includes 15 wholly-owned hospitals and emergency departments; rehabilitation services, cancer and heart institutes, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, physician offices for adults and pediatrics, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with CareSpot Urgent Care. Nearly 4,200 physicians, representing more than 80 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs nearly 22,000 team members. In FY20, Orlando Health served nearly 150,000 inpatients and nearly 3.1 million outpatients. During that same time period, Orlando Health provided approximately $760 million in total value to the communities it serves in the form of charity care, community benefit programs and services, community building activities and more. Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com.