On May 15, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital celebrated the special bond between babies and their parents by participating in International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day. This global event encourages the practice of kangaroo care, which provides continuous skin-to-skin contact between mother or father and baby.

Gloria Santayana, DO, has joined BayCare Medical Group and is now accepting new patients (age 18 and older) at 2470 Bloomingdale Ave., Suite 123, Valrico, FL 33596. Dr. Santayana is board certified in family medicine and fluent in Spanish.

The 36th Annual St. Anthony’s Triathlon returns to St. Petersburg Sunday, April 28. Triathlon weekend, April 26-28, includes the Sports and Fitness Expo, the Meek & Mighty Triathlon, Sprint Triathlon and the Olympic distance race.

St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital has started construction on a $9.4 million project that includes an expansion of its Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and renovation of the Obstetrics Unit. The 16,500-square-foot project is expected to be complete in February 2020.

Pascal Spehar, MD, FACS, has joined BayCare Medical Group at 1601 W. Timberlane Drive, Suite 100, in Plant City, as well as the medical staff at South Florida Baptist Hospital. He is now accepting new patients age 18 and older. He is a board-certified general surgeon.

Ileana M. Acevedo, MD, joined BayCare Medical Group and is now accepting new patients (age 18 and older) at 12780 Race Track Road, Suite 300, Tampa, FL 33626. Dr. Acevedo is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases and fluent in Spanish.

BayCare team member Beverly Littlejohn never thought she needed an advance directive. But, she had a wakeup call when three members of her family passed away two years ago. Learn more about Littlejohn's story and why advance directives matter.

Columbine Survivor Austin Eubanks will be the keynote speaker at the 2019 Pasco Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention Conference: Strengthening Our Communities on Mental Health and Drug Prevention. Several hundred people are expected to attend this one-day conference May 14.

Mease Countryside Hospital has opened a new parking garage and an elevated pedestrian walkway. This parking garage and walkway are part of a $156 million expansion project that will include a new pavilion.

Several BayCare hospitals have been named to the IBM Watson Health™ 100 Top Hospitals® annual study. Mease Countryside Hospital, Safety Harbor; Morton Plant Hospital, Clearwater and St. Joseph’s Hospitals, Tampa were selected as best–performing hospitals in the U.S. The study is based on a balanced scorecard using publicly available data for clinical, operational, and patient satisfaction metrics.