By MARY SHEDDEN | The Tampa Tribune Published: May 13, 2012 Updated: May 13, 2012 - 12:00 AM

The real battleground in Tampa area health care lies far from the city's limits.

During the next three years, eastern and southern Hillsborough County residents will witness the arrival of a new hospital and several hospital-owned medical practices, such as a Tampa General Hospital office opened this month in Brandon.

It coincides with similar growth in Northeast Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

Leaders from the area's major health care systems say these geographic moves are essential to their long-term growth, which for years has heavily marketed hospital technology and specialized services.

"In this day and age, you need to be where your patients are, and not the other way around," said Isaac Mallah, chief executive officer of BayCare's St. Joseph's Hospitals, including St. Joseph's Hospital South Hospital and medical offices slated to break ground this fall.

Today, many in the hospital industry believe the best way to attract new customers is to provide primary-care services in traditionally underserved areas. That means hiring doctors to work in these communities, as opposed to hiring physicians to practice only on the hospital campus.

There's great value in building relationships between patients and community-based family doctors who work for the hospital, said Jana Gardner, vice president of ambulatory services at Tampa General.

"We want to make sure people have access to our specialty care (at the hospital). And that all starts with a family physician," said Gardner, who oversees the new Brandon practice that eventually will house five staff physicians.

This approach is somewhat new for Tampa General, best known for its downtown trauma center, burn unit and organ-transplant program. Instead of contracting with community-based doctors under so-called affiliation agreements, Tampa General has brought a dozen family physicians onto its payroll.

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Tampa area hospitals look to suburbs for growth