University Health’s highly anticipated $573.7 million Women’s and Children’s Hospital will open its doors at the South Texas Medical Center and start treating patients in late August.
The 12-story, 1.1 million-square-foot hospital located at 4502 Medical Dr. has 300 patient beds; a children’s emergency department; a women’s center that covers all things obstetrics and gynecology; labor and delivery rooms and C-section rooms; pediatric and neonatal intensive care units with private rooms for parents to stay in; and operating rooms.
The hospital will open Aug. 24 and will house cardiac, neurology, transplant and trauma specialists, and a pediatric rehabilitation center to avoid separating families for care elsewhere.
“It’ll be more efficient, that way we can support each other on one floor” with the hospital’s pediatric ICU and heart center, said Irene Sandate, chief nursing officer for the new hospital, while conducting a preview tour of the facility. “It is a very complex combination of pediatric intensivists, nurses that are specially trained to take care of children and newborns with heart defects.”
University Health aims to improve hypertension care and treatment to prevent strokes and maternal death; improve treatment for mothers with placenta accreta syndrome to avoid hemorrhaging; and address diabetes during pregnancy.
The new Women’s and Children’s Hospital moves two previously separated departments into one shared space and replaces the previous separation between women’s services and children’s services that officials say didn’t fit the needs of growing Bexar County. Previously on the main campus, children occupied the seventh floor of the 10-story Sky Tower and the labor and delivery wing was on the fourth floor of the Horizon Tower.
Along with the hospital, University Health spent another $62.4 million on a 900-space parking building and $113.7 million on a lower-floor section of the hospital located beneath the tower that includes a new kitchen, cafeteria, outpatient pharmacy and conference center, and pediatric cardiac catheterization labs.
The project was part of the taxpayer-funded hospital system’s capital improvement program and is funded by cash reserves and certificates of obligation, a form of debt that governments can use without voter approval for certain projects. The financing won’t require a property tax increase for county residents.
Understanding that hospital stays can sometimes be troubling for patients and their families, the hospital showcases trauma-informed design standards throughout, like the floor-to-ceiling windows on each floor to bring in natural light, and the 1,000-plus colorful art pieces meant to be positive distractions for children in the playrooms, family lounges, performance areas and game rooms.
Decorating the art glass on the massive windows in the main lobby, the names of 5,000 staff members and former patients are integrated into blue “Mother Birds” by artist Priscila De Carvahlo.
Each floor is designed to be similar and have a few spaces in common, like family lounges and isolation units. The hospital also features technology that allow security staff to control access to elevators; families to monitor NICU babies remotely; and communication with medical staff by families.
A unique space called Mother’s Place will house a breastfeeding support center with milk analyzers to track protein and fat in milk.
“What we were trying to achieve is that moms and babies both could get maximized in nutrition, so that they can provide the best milk, because that’s the babies’ most important medication they can get,” said Dr. Cynthia Blanco, neonatologist and infant nutrition expert for University Health.
For mothers who can’t produce breast milk, the space will also have the Frost Milk Bank that will accept milk donations. During the tour, Blanco said the program could increase breast milk donorship across South Texas.
When it comes to infants’ health, Blanco said milk and formula nutrition plays a big role: “We have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes and issues that can be tackled early in life, and that affects the baby’s development.”
As of Friday’s preview tour, some construction was still ongoing, with workers present in orange vests and safety helmets. It appeared that only minor touches were still needed, like missing televisions in family lounges and playrooms, which the hosts said would be in place by the time the hospital opens.
University Health has two other hospitals underway: An acute care hospital on the South Side and another on the Northeast Side at Retama.
University Health is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
