The collaborative efforts between Morton Plant Mease and St. Joseph's Children's Hospital continues providing more access to specialized pediatric care and strengthened advanced children's care in north Pinellas with a St. Joseph's Children's Specialty Center at Mease Countryside Hospital.

The new specialty center now offers physical, occupational and speech therapy programs as well as pediatric physician services for neurology and endocrinology. In April, gastroenterology and cardiology physician services will be offered. This center is unique in that it also offers convenient, on-site pediatric laboratory services specialized for the smallest of patients.

"Our centers are set up so each child and their family receive one-on-one time with pediatric specialists close to home," said Kimberly Guy, chief operating officer at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital and St. Joseph's Children's Hospital of Tampa. "The goal of the specialty center is to offer a medical staff that works closely with family members and primary care physicians to provide children with family-centered outpatient care."

St. Joseph's Children's at Morton Plant Mease services began at Mease Countryside in 2009 and includes emergency services, neonatal intensive care units and an enhanced 18-bed, private inpatient children's unit. "We are very excited about the addition of the specialty center at Mease Countryside and bringing more pediatric services to families in north Pinellas and southwest Pasco communities," said Lou Galdieri, chief operating officer at Mease Countryside.

"The continuation of our partnership offers higher level of care for pediatric patients to be admitted to Mease Countryside for inpatient medical care or to St. Joseph's Children's for pediatric surgery."     

The Mease Countryside location is the fifth St. Joseph's Children's specialty center in the Tampa Bay area. The four other St. Joseph's Children's Specialty Center locations are:

Main Campus Specialty Center:

St. Joseph's Children's Hospital
3001 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33607

North Tampa Specialty Center:
15045 Bruce B. Downs Blvd
Tampa, FL 33647

Brandon Specialty Center:
10817 Bloomingdale Ave.
Riverview, FL 33569

Lakeland Specialty Center:
1417 Lakeland Hills Blvd.
Lakeland, FL 33805

For more information on the St. Joseph's Children's Specialty Center at Mease Countryside, call (813) 644-4336.

About Mease Countryside Hospital
Mease Countryside Hospital is a 300-bed facility committed to improving the health of everyone it serves. Mease Countryside has been awarded nine Top 100 Hospital designations in the areas of stroke, orthopaedic, intensive care and overall care by the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success. Mease Countryside is awarded with Magnet Designation for the second time by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the most prestigious national recognition of excellence in nursing care. Mease Countryside Hospital is located at 3231 McMullen Booth Rd., Safety Harbor, Fla.

About St. Joseph's Children's Hospital
As Tampa's first dedicated children's hospital, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital is designed to meet the unique needs of children and their families by providing high-tech pediatric health care in a family-centered, child-friendly environment. The 174-bed facility is home to a medical staff of nearly 260 physicians with approximately 155 pediatric specialists, representing almost every major pediatric sub-specialty.

Part of the BayCare Health System, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital is the third largest children's hospital in Florida, providing more acute medical and surgical pediatric care than all other hospitals in Hillsborough County.