Round Rock Edition | June 2023

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EXPANDING CARE OPTIONS Local hospitals are investing a combined total of more than $250 million in expansions that will deliver over the next several years.

to its Round Rock hospital, which is expected to be complete in 2026. The expansion is bringing additional operating rooms and patient beds for general care, but Tren- ton Vaughan, BS&W Vice President of Patient Care, said the hospital is also introducing space for several types of care it did not previously oer. Among the new facilities coming to the Round Rock hospital is a cardiac catheterization lab. Car- diac catheterization is a process for diagnosing the condition of a patient’s heart in a way that is less invasive than other methods, BS&W cardiologist Dr. Jose Condado Contreras said. Condado Contreras said the lab is the rst of its kind in a BS&W hospital. “[The new lab] allows us to do better pictures with less radiation, so it’s safer for the patients and for us providers,” Condado Contreras said. BAYLOR SCOTT & WHITE ROUND ROCK EXPANSION Investment: $220 million New facilities include: • A neonatal intensive care unit • An expanded labor and delivery department • Additional operating rooms and patient beds • Cardiac catheterization, interventional radiology and testing laboratories • An expanded emergency department Status: Completionexpected in 2026

ST. DAVID’S ROUND ROCK EXPANSION Investment: $53.1 million

ASCENSION SETON WILLIAMSON Investment: $13 million Scope: Added neonatal intensive care unit, expanded spaces for maternal fetal medicine and urogynecology services New positions: ve OB-GYNs Status: Completed in early 2022

Scope: Adding two new oors to main hospital with room for a 34-bed intermediate patient care unit on each new oor Status: Completion expected in late 2023

SOURCES: ASCENSION SETON, BAYLOR SCOTT & WHITE HEALTH, ST. DAVID’S HEALTHCARECOMMUNITY IMPACT

He said having that service available within a shorter distance will mean patients having a heart attack or those with ongoing heart conditions will not have to travel as far to receive care. “One benet is for the comfort of patients,” Condado Contreras said. “I experience this on a daily basis—patients hate to travel.” Another focus as local hospitals expand their ser- vices is care for women and children. An in-progress expansion at BS&W Round Rock and an expansion at Ascension Seton Williamson both included neonatal intensive care units, and the BS&W Round Rock expansion includes an upgraded labor and delivery department with more beds and new equipment. On a regional level, St. David’s and Ascension Seton are investing $121 million and $320 million, respectively, to expand women’s care services at their Austin locations. Dell Children’s Medical Cen- ter also opened a new pediatric hospital in North

Austin in April. Knipstein said the new Dell Children’s hospital in north Austin will provide a much-needed service for the area. “As far as trauma facilities and places that can treat heart attacks and strokes, we denitely have what we need,” Knipstein said. “The one thing we were lack- ing was an in-county pediatric hospital.” Keeping up with growth While local hospitals work to bring new services to the area, Vaughan said they must also ensure their core services can keep up. Round Rock, Pugerville and Hutto have all seen substantial population growth over the past 10 years, meaning area hospitals must be able to accommo- date more patients each year. According to guidance from the World Health Organization, an ideal ratio is 150 hospital beds per 100,000 people in a given community.

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ROUND ROCK IN FRONT OF DELL DIAMOND

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