BayCare's St. Joseph's Hospital Secures Statutory Teaching Hospital Designation

CLEARWATER, Fla., July 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The State of Florida has designated BayCare's St. Joseph's Hospital as a statutory teaching hospital, in recognition of its expanding investment in graduate medical education. The Agency for Health Care Administration's designation encompasses all five BayCare facilities under the St. Joseph's name including St. Joseph's Hospital, St. Joseph's Women's Hospital and St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, all located in Tampa; St. Joseph's Hospital-North in Lutz; and St. Joseph's Hospital-South in Riverview.

The formal recognition comes as BayCare has dramatically increased the size of its graduate medical education (GME) programs. Nearly 300 residents will train across BayCare this coming academic year, and BayCare is on track to train up to 650 by 2029. This has been accomplished in part due to the Florida Legislature's commitment to providing funding support for graduate medical education. BayCare has also expanded its research efforts, doubling the number of clinical trials enrolling patients in recent years.

The GME programs currently active at St. Joseph's Hospital are Internal Medicine (two), Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Emergency Medicine and Transitional Year for a total of 135 residents. BayCare also has GME programs operating at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Morton Plant North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey, Mease Countryside Hospital in Safety Harbor and Winter Haven Hospital in Winter Haven.

"BayCare has one of the fastest-growing Graduate Medical Education programs in the country with 14 BayCare-sponsored and four university-sponsored programs," said BayCare Chief Physician Executive Sowmya Viswanathan. "We know that more than half of residents tend to practice where they train, so we're investing in the future of health care through the region while bringing the latest medical knowledge and standards into our community."

Under Florida law, a statutory teaching hospital is defined as any Florida hospital officially affiliated with an accredited Florida medical school that has at least seven different accredited GME programs and the presence of 100 or more full-time equivalent resident physicians. St. Joseph's Hospital is affiliated with the following medical schools: University of South Florida, University of Florida, Nova Southeastern University, Florida State University, University of Central Florida and Lake Erie College of Medicine. The state's designation identifies hospitals considered essential to training the state's physician workforce and supporting other aspects of the health care infrastructure.

To enhance its academic medicine efforts, earlier this year BayCare announced a new strategic collaboration with Northwestern Medicine, Chicago's premier academic health system that includes Feinberg School of Medicine, to expand access to advanced medical treatments, enhance clinical research, and improve training and education for current and future physicians.

"The official state designation of St. Joseph's Hospital as a statutory teaching hospital confirms our commitment to the future of academic medicine throughout West Central Florida," said BayCare President and CEO Stephanie Conners. "This community deserves a stronger bridge between clinical care delivery and academic excellence and BayCare is the best provider in the region to deliver on that."

Learn more: BayCare Graduate Medical Education Programs

About BayCare

BayCare is a leading not-for-profit academic health care system that connects individuals and families to a wide range of services at 16 hospitals, including a children's hospital, and hundreds of other convenient locations throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. The system is West Central Florida's largest provider of behavioral health and pediatric services and its provider group, BayCare Medical Group, is one of the largest in the region. BayCare's diverse network of ambulatory services includes laboratories, imaging, surgical centers, BayCare Urgent Care locations, wellness centers and one of Florida's largest home care agencies, BayCare HomeCare. BayCare's mission is to improve the health of all it serves through community-owned, health care services that set the standard for high-quality, compassionate care. For more information, visit BayCare.org. 

SOURCE BayCare Health System