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Suncoast Pasco News

Favorable Prognosis

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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: June 28, 2008

Not long ago, it looked as if Morton Plant Mease North Bay Hospital was going to be left holding the short stick. Both it and Community Hospital of New Port Richey wanted to leave their longtime homes in New Port Richey for the booming Trinity area of southwestern Pasco County. State regulators approved the Community Hospital move but said no to North Bay. At the time, Trinity seemed to have unlimited growth potential, thanks to its rural atmosphere but proximity to jobs in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. It was definitely seen as the place to be.

Zoom ahead to 2008. The Trinity area, to be sure, is still growing. The downturn in the Florida housing market and the impact that has had on the state's economy, however, has cooled the pace of development there a bit. Regardless, HCA West Florida, the Community Hospital owner, is building the Medical Center of Trinity.

North Bay Hospital, part of the Clearwater-based Morton Plant Mease Health Care system, however, is not withering on the vine. It is in the midst of an expansion plan that will double the size of the medical center by late 2010. That expansion plan just received a boost, a $1 million donation, from Jay B. Starkey Jr. and wife Marsha. The Starkey family is perhaps best known as ranchers and major land owners in the part of Pasco County now known as Trinity.

Marsha Starkey is a member of the North Bay Hospital board of directors, but the Starkey family isn't known for wasting money on losing propositions. So, perhaps having to stay in New Port Richey wasn't the booby prize for North Bay Hospital many people might have assumed.

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