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Mease Dunedin Hospital Planning Major Expansion
Mark Schantz/SUNCOAST NEWS
LOU GALDIERI, Mease Dunedin Hospital administrator, looks over plans for part of the medical center’s $19 million expansion.
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Published: January 5, 2008
DUNEDIN, Fla. - DUNEDIN, Fla. - There are big plans afoot to focus on orthopedics, neurosurgery and spine care as Mease Dunedin Hospital's celebrates its 70th anniversary with a $19 million expansion.
Lou Galdieri, Mease Dunedin Hospital administrator and chief operating officer, said the expansion will create an exciting time at the hospital.
Mease Dunedin, the city's largest employer, is renovating about 51,000 square feet of its main building and expanding the hospital facility with 4,000 square feet of new construction, he said. Expansion will be completed by 2010.
Operating rooms at the hospital will be expanded in size and number from four to seven rooms. Each of the new operating rooms will be 50 percent larger than current rooms.
Expansion is needed to accommodate neurosurgical and orthopedic specialties, according to Galdieri.
"Doubling the size of our operating rooms will allow us to accommodate the increased demand, intricacy and specialized surgical equipment required for neurosurgeries and orthopedic procedures such as knee and hip surgery," he said in a news release.
Mease Dunedin operating suites will be equipped with the latest state-of-the-art technology, including digital equipment and voice-activated X-ray and other types of imaging machines.
The new operating rooms should all be in use by mid-2009.
In late 2008, the hospital will unveil a newly designed 20-bed critical care unit for patients in need of intensive care.
The new critical-care unit will be constructed adjacent to the hospital's existing respiratory care area. This will give respiratory care technicians quick access to CCU patients.
All equipment will be configured to provide care access from every side of a patient's bed, an important consideration in neurosurgery care, said Galdieri, who began his medical career as a registered nurse.
The hospital's ambulatory care unit and post-anesthesia surgery care unit also will be renovated.
The hospital has already instituted many innovations to help make life easier for patients.
Mease medical staff implemented a policy that strives to see emergency room patients in 30 minutes or less, according to Galdieri.
Mease Dunedin already has its medical lab within its emergency room complex, allowing quicker diagnoses.
For many people without health insurance or seasonal visitors, Mease's emergency room is their primary health provider in sickness and emergencies, he said.
In an important partnership, Baycare Alliant Hospital will lease space at Mease Dunedin for a 48-bed long-term acute care facility. The Baycare unit will be for patients in need of extended hospital stays of more than 25 days.
The Baycare unit at Mease Dunedin will open Jan. 8. The nearest similar facilities are in South St. Petersburg and South Tampa.
Mease Dunedin Hospital, a nonprofit health-care facility, is part of Clearwater-based Morton Plant Mease Health Care. The other Morton Plant Mease hospitals are: Mease Countryside, in Safety Harbor; Morton Plant, in Clearwater; and North Bay, in New Port Richey.
Mease Dunedin recently received the Gold Seal of Approval for stroke care from the Joint Commission, an award for excellence in nursing and recognition for its quality efforts in treating congestive heart failure.
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