[SA] Upgrades to a downtown hospital could reach 1 billion

[sirkingwilliam]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/met...s.2908c45.html

Major hospital upgrades could top $900 million

Web Posted: 12/13/2007 10:58 PM CST

Don Finley
Express-News

The total cost of renovating the aging University Hospital and the former Brady/Green hospital downtown could exceed $900 million when later phases scheduled to begin in five years are added to it, University Health System board members were told Thursday.

At a meeting last month, the board heard a staff proposal for the first phase of that renovation plan, which would include downtown improvements, a new trauma tower at University Hospital, a new utility plant and expanded parking, along with more than 200 additional hospital beds — a plan that could cost roughly $700 million.

The new numbers, requested by the board, would be for renovations to the 1968 hospital tower and additional changes to the University Health Center Downtown, which would take place beginning in 2012 after completion of the first phase, and would add about $200 million to the total cost.

Under the proposal, the tax-supported University System would finance the first phase with about $120 million in cash reserves, and possibly could achieve an additional $70 million or more in savings through partnerships currently under discussion with CPS Energy and the University of Texas Health Science Center.

The rest, perhaps $500 million, could be financed through bonds and other financial mechanisms, officials said.

Officials have not yet decided how the second and third phases would be financed.

Bexar County Commissioners Court must sign off on the plan.

The lack of hospital beds has added to overcrowding in the hospital's busy emergency center, where patients who have been treated for their emergency must remain until a bed opens up.

The proposal would increase the hospital's number of beds from 498 to 721 by 2017.

The plan would also improve the hospital's trauma services and operating rooms, which will become more important after Wilford Hall Medical Center's Level 1 trauma center is shut down.

"The plant we have, which was state-of-the-art in 1968, is no longer state-of-the-art in 2008. It's 40 years old," University System President George B. Hernández Jr. said in a recent interview.

In addition, the hospital system will absorb about 125 employees of the Metropolitan Health District as it assumes responsibilities for some 11 public health clinics throughout the city. The City Council is expected to consider the merger of services next month.

The University System will provide prenatal care, screenings for children and seniors, family planning and refugee health services, while the Metropolitan Health District will continue to provide public health services.

Board members say they hope the net effect to taxpayers will be neutral, with the city and the University System eventually adjusting their tax rates to accommodate the shift of services.

[kornbread]

At that cost, shouldn't they consider building new as opposed to renovating?

[TXlifeguard]

The title to this thread is misleading.

While the Express-News article didn't provide a dollar and location breakdown for specific aspects of the overall project, the vast majority of the renovation dollars would go to the university hospital campus in the medical center.

The old Brady Green facility downtown has no emergency services, and serves primarily as a clinic. Its also not a tower and does not have 425 current beds, so from a re-reading of the article it seems pretty clear to me that they are referring exclusively to the medical center campus.

[sirkingwilliam]

You may be right, the wording used was a bet confusing on the part of the EN.