Winter Haven Hospital is a hospital and health service system based in Winter Haven, Florida. The hospital is managed and supported by the Winter Haven Hospital Foundation—a 501(c)3 non-profit organization—and is owned by BayCare Health System, a group of 15 not-for-profit hospitals in the Tampa Bay Area. The Winter Haven Hospital system includes the hospital proper, the Community Blood Center, the Winter Haven Women's Hospital, the Winter Haven Ambulatory Surgery and Diagnostic Center, the Center for Behavioral Health, and seven Family Health Centers in Winter Haven and surrounding communities.
History
Winter Haven Hospital was founded in 1926. The original building was located on Avenue C NE. A new building at 223 7th Street was dedicated in September 1928 by hospital physicians and community leaders and opened in 1930.
A new hospital facility was constructed at the location of the current main campus in 1937. The facility has undergone many expansions and remodelling projects over the years. These include the building of the nine-story "Swann" building in 1967, the "Street" building in 1972, and the "Arnold" building in 1975. A $40 million, 60,000-square-foot addition to the front of the Swann building was opened in 2008, adding new surgical facilities, a new cardiac step-down unit and a cardiac rehabilitation center to the Bostick Heart Center as well as a new lobby and improved access to the Cassidy Cancer Center. The 2008 addition followed the completion of a 112,000-square-foot, 300-space parking garage in November 2006; the foundation of the garage was built to support two additional levels (for a total of 5 levels) which may be added in the future.
Winter Haven hospital has also expanded into specialty centers at its main campus. A cancer treatment center opened in 1978 and hospital's Cassidy Cancer Center—in affiliation with the University of Florida College of Medicine—began seeing patients in 2009. In 1999, the $13 million Winter Haven Ambulatory Surgery & Diagnostic Center opened above the emergency department to streamline serviced to patients coming to the hospital for ambulatory (outpatient) surgeries and procedures. The Bostick Heart Center was established in 2005 to provide emergency, elective, and rehabilitative heart care and is the only facility in eastern Polk County capable of performing open-heart surgery. A Stroke Center was established at the hospital to provide critical care and rehabilitative services to persons who suffer a stroke, in which outcome is very time-sensitive; the Stroke Center was certified by the Joint Commission as an Advanced Primary Stroke Center in 2006—the first such facility in the Polk, Highlands, and Hardee County area.
The hospital system also expanded to facilities outside the main campus. Winter Haven Women's Hospital was completed in 1987 at 101 Avenue O, S.E., roughly south of the main campus along 1st Street. The Women's Hospital is a 61-bed specialty hospital providing maternity and maternity related, surgical care for women and infants. In 1995 the hospital acquired space at the Gil Jones complex, which is currently used for business/administrative operations. The hospital branched out into providing primary care service at seven Family Health Centers established in Winter Haven and surrounding communities. The hospital opened the Center for Behavioral Health—in the "Sweet Centre"—in 1990 to provide outpatient psychiatric and counseling services. The hospital also provided mental health services in Sebring at the Marge Brewster Center until the facility was transferred to the Peace River Center in 2010.
Winter Haven Hospital became the eleventh hospital to join the not-for-profit BayCare Health System effective August 30, 2013. The hospital had sought for years to find a not-for-profit new owner as it struggled financially.
According to Enterprise Florida, Winter Haven Hospital is the fourth-largest private sector employer in Polk County, with 2,500 employees. In 2003 the hospital had 527 licensed beds and it maintained this number as of 2012.