TAMPA, Fla. — AdventHealth Tampa is expanding and on Tuesday, it opened a brand new, state-of-the-art surgery center, the Taneja Surgery Center.

In total, the project cost about $300 million.

It’s the largest operating room in all of Tampa Bay, and the largest surgical expansion in our area’s history, and hospital officials said now, they’ll be able to help a lot more people. 

The new, six-floor facility, covers about 300,000 square feet and is expected to create hundreds of new jobs. The facility is adjacent to the University of South Florida campus. It has 96 private patient rooms, 24 ICU beds a 160-seat auditorium and meeting space.

Tom McGuiness will be one of the first patients at the Taneja Surgery Center. On Tuesday, he’s having surgery to help treat his pancreatic cancer.

“I'm not the happiest man in the world but I know everything should go fine, with the new surgeries and all that, I'm tickled to death,” said Tom.

And while Tom may be tickled to death about being of the first patients here, he knows he’s in good hands with surgeon, Dr. Ross.

Tom received his diagnosis just a month ago, and Dr. Ross will be removing part of his pancreas using the latest and greatest surgical technology.

The new surgery center has 18 operating rooms, and patients can receive treatment for cardiovascular issues, digestive problems, neuroscience, oncology, and they even have robots to assist as needed.

Dr. Ross said ultimately, the new surgery center benefits our entire community.

“We want to make Tampa Bay a destination for cancer patients, we have the knowledge here, we have the physicians here, having the equipment and having a center like this, you just complete the picture.  It makes it a destination,” said Dr. Ross.