Earliest Opening for Medical Center of Trinity Likely to be Mid-February

It will likely be the middle of February before the much-anticipated and delayed Medical Center of Trinity can complete inspections and open, a state agency spokeswoman said.

Officials from the center’s owner, Hospital Corporation of America, but acknowledged in a news release that would not happen.

The center, near the intersection of State Road 54 and Little Road, still has to pass its final state inspection before it can open, said Shelisha Coleman, spokeswoman for the state Agency for Healthcare Administration that inspects and approves medical facilities.

The Trinity center has to correct some areas from its last inspection before the final inspection can take place. Because of the agency’s inspection schedule, it probably will be the middle of February before state inspectors can clear the hospital, Coleman said.

The agency is waiting for HCA to call for a final inspection.

“It’s up to them to let us know when they’re ready,” Coleman said.

The hospital can open as soon as it passes the final state inspection.

Nearly all the hospital’s first floor that includes emergency care, operating rooms, diagnostic imaging, pharmacy and other facilities has passed the full state slate of inspections, HCA said in its release. But the rest of the first floor and second through fifth floors need to pass their final inspection.

Opening the Trinity hospital will mean the end of HCA’s emergency room facility at Community Hospital in New Port Richey.

The corporation has received state permission to keep the Behavioral Health portion of the New Port Richey facility open.

It will take too much construction and remodeling of the older portion of the building housing the emergency room to keep it open, the release said. It will close the day patients are moved to Trinity.

Most of the new hospital is finished enough to meet the second-to-last phase of state approval. At that point walls ceilings and shaft walls should be completed. Door frames, windows, stairs and railings should be installed. All electrical equipment and devices should be in place and main power feeds connected.

The Trinity hospital with its 30 emergency room beds and dedicated pediatric emergency room has been long in coming.

Construction crews broke ground in 2006 and HCA had hoped the Trinity hospital would open this November.

All the hospital’s patient rooms will be private with a 32-inch flat-screen HD TV, bathroom, Internet access and space for family members. There are eight delivery rooms and 14 separate postpartum rooms for recovery after delivery.

In addition to the main hospital, there will be a 90,000-square-foot medical arts building for doctor offices that will open after the hospital.