HCA Healthcare to build $50 million Hospital for Endocrine Surgery in Tampa

TAMPA — HCA Healthcare West Florida plans to build Florida’s first Hospital for Endocrine Surgery in a $50 million expansion of the Memorial Hospital of Tampa campus.

The new 75,000 square-foot facility at 6001 Webb Road is slated to start welcoming patients by January, officials say. The new surgery center will consolidate HCA Healthcare’s endocrinology services at Memorial Hospital and the Medical Center of Trinity under one roof.

The Hospital for Endocrine Surgery will be a “one-stop shop” for physicians to refer their patients with endocrine tumors of varying complexities for surgery, said HCA Healthcare West Florida President Dr. Ravi Chari.

“We (will) have the latest technology at the hospital for rapid, effective treatment of disorders. Patients can come into a place that’s equipped to focus on endocrine tumor diagnosis and treatment,” Chari said.

HCA Healthcare West Florida President Dr. Ravi Chari. [ HCA Healthcare ]

The new Town ‘N Country inpatient and outpatient facility will include 16 private patient rooms, eight operating rooms, and 38 pre- and post-surgery bays.

Chari said that he doesn’t know of another hospital in the country dedicated solely to treating endocrine tumors. The new facility will offer thyroid cancer surgery, benign thyroid surgery, parathyroid surgery, adrenal gland surgery, and the innovative radiofrequency ablation treatment of thyroid tumors.

A rendering of the $50 million Hospital of Endocrine Surgery that HCA Healthcare West Florida plans plans to build on the campus of Memorial Hospital of Tampa in December or January. [ HCA Healthcare West Florida ]

Memorial Hospital’s Dr. Hyunsuk Suh performed the first scarless thyroid surgery in Tampa Bay last November, according to HCA Healthcare. Thyroid surgeries typically leave a three to six-inch scar at the base of the neck, but officials said Suh instead used a robot that made minimally-invasive incisions in and around the armpits. Suh will exclusively offer this service at the new Hospital for Endocrine Surgery when the facility opens, said HCA Healthcare West Florida spokesperson Debra McKell.

Chari calls endocrine tumor patients a “highly underserved population.” More than 75 percent of adrenal tumors and 50 percent of parathyroid tumors are underdiagnosed, according to the hospital network.

The hospital expansion will allow HCA Healthcare to grow its endocrine tumor patient base in not only Florida, Chari said, but the rest of the country.

“This hospital will create a unique way for patients to receive experienced care and as that becomes better known by the medical community and patients at large, we feel that they will seek and travel to receive that care,” Chari said.