It's in the very early stages, but officials with the Moffitt Cancer Center are looking at expanding or rebuilding their main hospital.
According to Moffitt Chief Operating Officer Jack Kolosky, nothing has been decided yet, but they know they need to do something to address hospital overcrowding.
"The numbers of patients who seek us out every year continues to grow, and we're going to need to to deal with that in our facilities," Kolosky said. "The oldest of our facilities, the hospital, is coming up on 29 years old, so we need to think about what the other options are to either expand that or do something else."
Currently, the five-story main hospital on the University of South Florida Tampa campus has about 200 beds, which are almost always occupied.
Land is at a premium on the USF campus, so possibilities include tearing down the hospital and building a 12-story-tall structure that would be about double the size of the current one.
But Kolosky stressed that any such plans are in the very early stages.
"I think we want to begin the dialogue with all of our constituencies, and that includes the Legislature, but it also includes our donors, our boards, our patients, all of whom have a voice in what our next things we should be doing," he said.
Later this year, Moffitt is scheduled to open an $88 million outpatient facility on McKinley Drive, a mile away from the Cancer Center's main facility.
However, that site probably won't be able to handle the amount of patients who need to stay at the hospital overnight.
