By Ryan Walsh
At St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, patients always come first.
The newly completed patient tower, a three-year, $152 million dollar expansion project, adds 90 private patient rooms, as well as enhanced technologies and renovated facilities. With a total of 448 beds and continued plans for growth, St. Anthony’s looks to provide the highest quality care for its patients.
Scott Smith has been the president of St. Anthony’s Hospital since 2016 and has overseen the expansion project from the construction phase to present. Arriving with years of experience managing both for-profit and nonprofit hospitals, Smith successfully oversaw the opening of St. Joseph’s Hospital-South in Riverview in 2013.
“At a high level, the project enhances and modernizes existing hospital operations and expands capacity bringing the most current clinical environment available to our patients and community,” Smith said.
The completion of the patient tower marks the end of the second of a three-phase plan, the first of which saw expansion in existing operating rooms and the endoscopy department. Phase 3 is set to continue throughout the remainder of 2022.
“The project allows St. Anthony’s to meet current and future demand based on this growing population. Our Phase 3 construction and renovation plan will include expansion of our emergency department and the imaging department,” Smith said.
The focus of the 143,000-square-foot project was patient-minded from the beginning. From large-scale design elements to small, yet consequential details, the goals of increasing efficiency and removing impediments to care have been expertly factored into the development.
Smith highlighted a few key examples.
“We relocated many of our community-facing services to the main hospital level for easier access for our patients and visitors. Our cafeteria, which was on the ground level, is now on the first floor of the hospital along with our health information management services, team resources and pre-admission testing,” Smith said.
Perhaps most importantly, Phase 2 accomplished its primary imperative:
“We were able to create more efficient clinical spaces in the new tower,” Smith said.
The Greater Tampa Bay area, and St. Petersburg in particular, is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Meeting the needs of patients while balancing this continued growth is a challenge that Smith and St. Anthony’s Hospital have risen to.
“We anticipate continued population and business community growth. [This] project allows St. Anthony’s to meet current and future demand based on this growing population.”
Under Smith’s leadership, the third phase of the expansion project will almost certainly follow suit. With its continued focus on patient well-being, St. Anthony’s will undoubtedly serve this ever-growing community for many years to come.
