BayCare opens new patient tower in Safety Harbor in $156 million expansion
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 20, 2021

BayCare Health System announced the opening of a new tower at Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor as part of its $156 million expansion and renovation plan for the facility.

The Bilheimer Tower, named in honor of Nancy and David Bilheimer following a substantial gift donation, is four stories tall and adds 104 private rooms. The construction addition will bring all of the critical care rooms together — including 76 new licensed beds and 30 observation beds — and will add a new main entrance to the hospital.

"This project allowed us to expand our campus, add more private rooms and be better prepared to meet the health care needs of our community for years to come," Matt Novak, president of Mease hospitals, said in a statement. “With the addition of this tower, we’ve gone from 31 percent private rooms to 82 percent. We are extremely grateful to the Bilheimers for their generosity and their role in making this happen.”

This is the second major completion milestone in the hospital’s five-year expansion and renovation project. Renovations began in 2018, and its first milestone — the opening of a four-story parking garage and elevated pedestrian walkway to the tower — was completed in February 2019.

In total, Mease Countryside Hospital will now have 387 licensed beds, which comes as Florida hospitals face a rapid increase in patients, pushing facilities toward capacity. The construction of the tower nearly completes the current phase of the $156 million plan.

The Bilheimer Tower will also include a renovated gift shop, a room for electronic monitoring, an outdoor courtyard garden with dining and seating areas, a noise-canceling water feature and a children’s play space. The fourth floor will include a rehabilitation gym. There will also be a state-of-the-art Entel Education Center comprised of various meeting rooms for community, patient, family and team members' education. The new Entel Education Center will move the meeting rooms from the basement to the ground floor level.

The goal is to create a “more connected hospital campus,” BayCare said in a news release. The remaining projects include expanding areas for materials management services and connecting the Bilheimer Tower to the Villa Tower. The hospital will also have renovations to the surgery department, respiratory department, all lobbies on the first floor and the cafeteria.

BayCare said Mease Countryside will move current patients and services into the new building on a rotating schedule in the upcoming weeks, and as they are moved, renovations will begin on the vacated spaces. The architect is Freeman-White of Charlotte, North Carolina, and the contractor is Haskell Construction of Jacksonville.