St. David's closer to opening new state-of-the-art hospital
The Saint David's Heath care system is expanding. Today they gave us a tour of their newest hospital. The multi-million dollar hospital is expected to open later this year.
St. David's says it's the only one of its kind in the Austin area.
The Austin area is growing, and so is the need for medical care.
“We have a lot of demand for care in our facilities that have grown over the years that we're unable to accommodate,” David Huffstutler, president and CEO of St. David’s Healthcare said.
They are addressing the problem, just as expected - building more hospitals. This newest one is just off Louis Henna Blvd.
“This enables us to go ahead and create that additional capacity without having to expand our North Austin campus. We had plans to do that, but that would take about 18 to 24 months to complete,” Huffstutler said.
The new hospital will operate as a surgical specialty hospital, but they will have an emergency room. The building cost $135 million to build and will cost $20 million to equip and furnish. Hospital officials say what makes this one unique to the area, is its luxurious accommodations.
“It has very nice amenities both for patients and physicians, it has spacious state of the art operating rooms,” he said.
Make that 10 operating rooms, with natural light coming in; forty beds total. The hallways are even warmly lit, contrary to a typical hospital that uses florescent lights. Some of the rooms also have separate family suites attached. Officials believe the design can even help with the healing process.
“Nobody wants to be in the hospital, but when you need to be in the hospital it should be a good experience,” Huffstutler said.
This is just one of the investments of more than 275 million dollars in the St. David's infrastructure and improvements, which will happen over the next few years. The hospital will be open and operating within the next four to six months.
As part of this expansion there will be a new hospital placed in Leander,
A$ 70 million expansion at St. David's Medical Center Austin, and a $50 million expansion at their South Austin location.