Client

BayCare Health System

Location

Clearwater, FL

Expertise

Healthcare

Services

Architecture, Interior Design

Established in 1916, Morton Plant Hospital was the first hospital built in northern Pinellas County. With the goal of meeting the future healthcare needs of the Clearwater, Florida, community, BayCare Health System tasked Gresham Smith with designing a 392-square-foot addition and renovation at the 687-bed hospital. The monumental project included the four-story Doyle Tower, which provides a new front door to the hospital, relocates surgery, unifies women’s care and expands orthopedics.

420k
square-foot project
20
new operating rooms
6
stories

The footprint of the new patient tower was driven by the need to maximize square footage for the surgery department, which was relocated from the basement of the hospital to the second floor of the patient tower. The new surgery department features 20 new operating rooms, including an intraoperative MRI, 39 private prep/phase II recovery rooms, a 34-bay PACU and support spaces.

hallway to neonatal intensive care unit
a patient room

The third floor of the new patient tower houses the women’s services program, including 16 LDRP rooms, 26 postpartum rooms, three C-section suites, and an 18-bed NICU. Our design resolves this navigational challenge by locating public elevators near the new main entrance, which open directly into a common waiting room that is centrally located between labor & delivery and postpartum.

a nurse station in the middle of a corridor of patient rooms

The patient tower’s fourth floor expands the hospital’s orthopedics department, creating a 31-bed unit and a 21-bed unit. The private orthopedic patient rooms were designed to accommodate patients’ equipment, such as wheelchairs and walkers, while also providing room for family and visitors, and space for physical therapy. Each orthopedics unit features a large, open nurse station as well as an enclosed staff work area. A combination of nursing alcoves between each patient room and the use of workstations on wheels allows for charting to be completed either in the patient room while providing bedside care, or outside of the patient room, granting the patient privacy.

drop off area outside the patient tower
the main lobby

The scope of this comprehensive four-year project also included a new main entrance, public spaces, admitting and an auditorium on the first floor. The fifth floor consists of the renovation of the hospital’s behavioral health program, while the sixth floor houses mechanical and electrical space to support the new tower.