A new hospital with an emergency room, as well as services in cardiology, orthopedics, obstetrics and surgery is opening in a growing area of San Antonio this summer. Westover Hills Baptist Hospital, located at Wiseman Boulevard and Loop 1604, will bring 92 beds and six operating rooms to the city’s far West Side in late July.
The four-story, 350,000-square-foot general acute care hospital is located on 72 acres and built with expansion in mind.
The need to open a new hospital on the far West Side came from wanting to fill gaps in the hospital’s coverage areas, said Brady Phillips, CEO of the new hospital.
Phillips said the hospital analyzed data showing that San Antonio’s far West Side, fueled mostly by jobs and housing, is growing 6.5 times more than the national average to determine the need for more health care in that area.
“What we observed was the importance of proximity to people, and it’s not surprising when you look at the maps of hospitals in San Antonio that there’s gaps out there,” he said. “We’ve worked to make sure we always have an ER in the right part of the community, but we reflected on the importance of having high-level care services. This is a hospital that does have critical care.”
Westover Hills Baptist is the westernmost of the city’s hospitals, “complimenting” CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-Westover Hills, located within a 10-minute drive.
“With over half a million people calling this side of town home, there’s enough need out here where all the hospitals … expect to be very busy,” Phillips said.
Westover Hills Baptist Hospital will open with 300 staff members and “in blocks,” he said.
Half of the top floor will open with nine medical surgical beds and one nurse station, while the critical care unit, the women’s and NICU floor and the main surgery department will open as patients start to arrive. It will take a few months before the hospital is fully operating, he said.
On Tuesday, nurses and hospital staff stocked the hospital and implemented the finishing touches across the hospital’s four floors. Other staff practiced clinical drills, while equipment was installed and new technology programmed.
Local limestone wood vertical panels along the walls of the main entrance welcome anyone entering the hospital. Across the rest of the floors, photos of the San Antonio Missions National Park, the Alamo and the River Walk adorn the walls.
The $240 million hospital connects to medical offices through a skybridge, eliminating the need for further travel to see primary care providers, get specialty physician care and imaging services to patients.
With the addition of the new hospital, Baptist Health, owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, now has seven acute care hospitals and 16 emergency rooms in San Antonio.
It took about two years of construction to finish Westover Hills Baptist Hospital, Phillips said. As construction was underway, Baptist Health witnessed the closure of Texas Vista Hospital, leaving its Mission Trail Baptist Hospital as the single, 92-bed hospital on the South Side.
Phillips said Baptist’s two newest ERs on the South Side see more than 100 patients a day, and Mission Trail Baptist Hospital has expanded its women’s services.
Westover Hills Baptist Hospital is 92% staffed, Phillips said, and hiring is still underway for at least 200 new jobs for nurses, lab and radiology technicians, phlebotomists, administrators, security officers, food services staff and housekeeping personnel.
The hospital will host a free community open house on June 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a clinical neighbors open house for EMS and medical providers on June 24, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
