Making Miracles Happen

Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies Celebrates 10 Years


In only 10 years, Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies has established itself as one of the country’s premier health care providers for women. The hospital provides state-of-the-art obstetric, gynecologic, and neonatal services, and with a direct connection to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, is the largest medical center for women and children in the United States.

Yet for Winnie Palmer Hospital, the focus is not just on being the largest or the busiest. The driving force is offering exceptional service to women experiencing life-changing moments.

“We’ve gathered a wealth of expertise and clinical experience in one place to ensure we’re able to deliver the highest quality care at some of the most important moments that a woman will experience in life,” said Sheila Bystrak, chief operating officer for Winnie Palmer Hospital. “It’s an amazing place where you see miracles happen every day.”

Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies offers exceptional service to women experiencing life-changing moments.

Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies offers exceptional service to women experiencing life-changing moments.

StateoftheArt Health Care

At Winnie Palmer Hospital, options for advanced gynecologic care abound. The hospital treats the vast majority of gynecologic conditions much more effectively through minimally invasive surgery, which offers women fewer complications, better results and quicker returns to normal daily lives.

Nationally, only 30 percent of all gynecologic surgeries use minimally invasive techniques, but at Winnie Palmer Hospital that number exceeds 75 percent. Nowhere is that commitment to advanced women’s health care more evident than in the hospital’s robotic surgery program.

Winnie Palmer Hospital’s robotic surgery program, which includes three surgical robots, recently reached a milestone by performing its 5,000th robotic surgery. What sets robotic surgery apart from traditional laparoscopic procedures is the precision and accuracy the technology affords the surgeon. Powerful 3-D, high-definition optics and special instruments designed to bend and rotate far more than the human wrist provide surgeons enhanced vision, dexterity and control.

Robotic surgery at Winnie Palmer Hospital allows women to get back to their everyday lives faster. Patients experience shortened hospital stays, less pain and scarring, reduced risk of infection, less blood loss, faster recoveries and improved clinical outcomes.

Growing With the Need

The opening of Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women & Children in 1989 marked the emergence of quality care for women and children in Central Florida. By 2004, Arnold Palmer Hospital was accommodating 11,000 births a year, easily surpassing its design-capacity of 6,500.

“Central Florida was growing exponentially, and we needed to build a specialized hospital for women and babies to accommodate the growth,” said Bystrak, who has worked for Orlando Health for 35 years and Arnold Palmer Medical Center for 25 years. “In 2006, we opened Winnie Palmer Hospital to serve women in this community and provide the type of high-level obstetric and gynecologic care this growing community needs.”

In addition to offering specialized gynecologic services and a women’s intensive care unit to treat women facing life-threatening illnesses, Winnie Palmer Hospital quickly became one of the top labor-and-delivery hospitals in the country.

Expertise in maternal-fetal medicine, specialization in high-risk labor and delivery, and a world-class neonatal intensive care unit contribute to the hospital’s status as a national leader in obstetric care. In fact, Winnie Palmer Hospital delivers more than 14,000 babies every year, ranking among the top three nationally in number of births.

“We built Winnie Palmer Hospital knowing that the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) would be an important part of what we do,” Bystrak said. “The direct connection from the NICU to pediatric specialists across the street at Arnold Palmer Hospital gives us a unique advantage not seen on this scale anywhere else in the country.”

Demand for NICU services continues to grow. The hospital expanded its NICU by 30 beds in 2014 to become the largest in the world under one roof with 142 beds. More than 1,600 babies are admitted into the NICU annually. It is equipped to provide the highest-level of care for high-risk newborns, including babies born prematurely or with congenital heart disease, infections and various other conditions.

Looking to the Future

As Winnie Palmer Hospital reaches its 10th year of existence, it has already begun undergoing refurbishment and expansion of services.

Along with the expansion of the NICU to 142 beds, the hospital will add an additional 30 beds for postpartum services and to support more operating room services on the hospital’s fourth floor.

The patient and family experience is central to Winnie Palmer Hospital’s mission. The hospital offers patients a resortlike experience with amenities, including concierge services, upgraded linens, massage sessions and other basic needs.

“We take great pride in ensuring that every patient at Winnie Palmer Hospital feels like she is the only one we’re caring for,” Bystrak said. “It’s a commitment all our physicians, nurses and team members make to creating an environment that encourages the healing of the mind, body and spirit.”

For more information about Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, visit winniepalmerhospital.com on the Web.