'A tale of two medical centers' in the ever-growing Buda

Two different medical center ground-breakings were literally right across the street from each other in Buda Wednesday morning.  

The Ascension Seton Health Center is set to open in Spring 2019.

"It's going to be a 20,000 square foot 2 story building dedicated to really family-based care here in Buda, Texas," said Ascension Seton's Kate Henderson. 

Henderson says patients will also have access to specialists like pulmonologists, women’s health and allergists.

Henderson says the facility will provide 50 jobs at opening and more after that.

"That's registered nurses and clinical assistants, it's people that do medical transcription," she said.

Later Wednesday morning ground was broken for the Baylor Scott and White Medical Center, Buda.

"It's going to be a full service medical center. it will include a hospital and it will include a primary and specialty care clinic basically so 24/7 access to care, emergency department, operating rooms," said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rob Watson.

Watson says the center is set to open next summer and will provide about 150 new jobs.  He says patients will find the integrated electronic medical records helpful.

"They walk in the front door of any facility and all their records are immediately accessible to anybody that's taking care of them so that takes a lot of their plate in terms of trying to remember what's happened to them, what medications they take," Watson said.

The bottom line is: Buda is a growing place.

"Doesn't look like we're slowing down.  And to...maybe expecting us to be in the 20 to 25,000 person range within the next decade or 15 years is very do-able," said Jay Heinrich, chairman of the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce board.

J.R. Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Chamber says they're looking for smart growth and clean industry.  They want to do it right.

"The challenge is going to be to maintain that relaxed Buda atmosphere, maintain a good cost of living, a good quality of life without getting congested or engulfed by some of the larger cities around us but I think the future looks bright for Buda," Gonzales said.