By LINDA CHION KENNEY
As the AdventHealth Riverview Hospital readies for its fall grand opening, Danae Gilliam, as director of business services, is quick to review the mission, numbers and offerings that give life to the massive campus off U.S. Highway 301, between Boyette and Balm Riverview roads.
In an interview Aug. 7 at the Barn Theatre at Winthrop, for a chamber event, Gilliam said hiring has been underway for the 282,610-square-foot campus, set to open with 82 patient beds and a score of services, including care for patients with digestive, emergency, orthopedic, urological, bariatric weight, heart and vascular, and women’s health concerns.
Dana Gilliam, director of business development, discusses AdventHealth Riverview, set for a fall grand opening.
In all, there are three towers — north, south and center — and a rooftop helipad to boot. Much of the North Tower is reserved for additional beds, “so we can double in size by just putting dry wall up and putting beds in rooms but not having to actually bring back [building] construction,” Gilliam said. Meanwhile, the tower will house the lab, pharmacy and environmental services.
Also on the property is the 96,649-square-foot medical office building that with an architectural detail appears to be connected to the three-tower hospital — but is not. The medical plaza building opened in early July, with two of its four floors reserved for future growth. The building served as the venue for the Backpack Hero event held Aug. 3, in partnership with the Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO) resource center on Riverview Drive.
“AdventHealth likes to invest in the community,” Gilliam said. “We don’t just want simply to be here behind our walls. We want to be present. We show up at chamber events. We partner with other organizations, like ECHO, that focus on how to help make the community a better place. That’s what we invest in because we live and work here, too.”
Indeed, at the Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce event at the Barn Theatre, Gilliam discussed the hospital and its offerings, job openings and volunteer opportunities. Working now to define and develop the volunteer program, Gilliam said opportunities will suit the needs of many, including “retirees who want to be able to just spend some time giving back to the community.”
Gilliam was interviewed at “Teaching to Excellence,” a back-to-school event for teachers in Riverview and south county schools. As the event’s Summa Cum Laude sponsor, AdventHealth was the first exhibit space to welcome educators who were on hand to collect school supplies from participating businesses, nonprofits and service professionals.
“This is my second week working for AdventHealth, and I’m excited to work for them,” said Patty Montgomery, newly hired to help market the hospital. “The culture, the patient care, it’s really an amazing place, positive, uplifting, compassionate, very different from many other places I’ve been.”
Founded formally in 1973, AdventHealth traces its roots to 1866, with a team of Seventh-Day Adventist medical pioneers in Battle Creek, Michigan, at a time when many treatments were as harmful as the conditions they attempted to cure. The aim then and now is “to extend the healing ministry of Christ,” Gilliam said, to people from all walks of life and beliefs.
“Our founders were considered revolutionaries for their belief that preventing disease was as important as treating it,” a company report continues. “They believed the best care didn’t treat only the body; it also helped heal the mind and lift the spirit.”
Faith runs deep in Gilliam, who, more than 150 years later, found herself in Egypt, with her husband, working as school missionaries. She said it’s personal for her, her career shift from business to healthcare, as she brings to bear the memory of a student who lost her life because, as a refugee, she was denied state medical attention.
“She had stomach pain, which her family believed needed to be treated at the hospital, but they were turned away because she couldn’t pay for it,” Gilliam said. “Ultimately, she died from appendicitis, a treatable condition that we in the United States would have taken care of so easily.”
It’s a memory Gilliam carries with her as she prepares for AdventHealth Riverview’s grand opening. “I want to be a part of this,” she said. “I want to make sure that everybody has the access they need, the physicians they need and the care they need because seeing what happens when it’s not available . . . “
Visibly moved, Gilliam let the pause speak for itself. She turned to a super-enlarged image of the hospital as she gave an impromptu “tour” of building floors and purposes.
Open on day one, in addition to the North Tower, is the South Tower, which on floors one through four, respectively, house the emergency department; surgical area; women’s health unit, for labor and delivery and more; and the 36-bed medical-surgery unit.
Linda Chion KenneyPhotos
A side view of AdventHealth Riverview, under construction at 9320 U.S. 301
Also open on day one was the Center Tower, with imaging on the ground floor, pre- and post-observation and endoscopy suites on the second floor, and ICU and PCU units on the third floor. The fourth floor is planned for future growth.
“We’re opening with 82 beds and we can pivot up to about 160, depending on our programming needs,” Gilliam said.
The adjacent office building is to house teams for physical, occupational and speech-language therapy. Also on tap are a spine clinic, timeshare medical offices and spaces planned for future growth on the second and fourth floors. Ahead of the hospital’s grand opening, physicians have been seeing patients.
“The best thing for a patient is to have a physician close as possible in case of an emergency,” Gilliam said. “If your cardiologist is here, and you have to go to the hospital, you’re not fighting Riverview traffic to get there.”
As for the bells and whistles, that would include the gift shop, gardening and outside cafeteria seats, along with “an amazing red brick pizza oven, which we are very excited about,” Gilliam said. Overall, “It’s going to be a nice space.”
For more about the hospital and its hiring needs, visit https://www.adventhealth.com/adventhealth-riverview/.