St. Joseph's Hospital Expands, Adds 400 Jobs North Of Tampa

St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa will expand in February 2010 into a a new, state-of the-art health care facility -- St. Joseph's Hospital North.

The facility, north of Tampa on Van Dyke Road, will feature 108 beds, dark wood interiors and a virtually paperless work environment, says St. Joseph's spokeswoman Lisa Patterson.

All of the rooms are tiled and offer single-bed privacy. "The place is amazing," Patterson says.

She said that like All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, the new hospital is "more spa- and hotel-like" than a traditional hospital. It also will use the latest technology. That includes biometric palm scanning, which identifies people using an electronic device that scans the unique lines of their palms.

St. Joseph's is planning community events Jan. 23 and 24 before the grand opening, featuring educational health exhibits and Florida art. The hospital plans to launch a micro-Web site just for the new facility.

St. Joseph's North is also the hospital's first move in using social media. It has a Facebook page.

The project began in 2002 with land work and the hospital has been building the facility for the past three years.

More than 400 employees will work at St. Joseph's North, which is part of the Baycare Health System. The original St. Joseph's remains in Tampa, off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and has expanded across the street years ago to create a separate women's hospital.

Writer: Dave Szymanski

Source: Lisa Patterson, St. Joseph's Hospital