Northwest Austin Edition | June 2025

St. David’s HealthCare expands footprint with hospital projects From the cover

On the other hand

The overview

St. David’s completed its Women’s Center of Texas expansion, located at the North Austin Medical Center, in 2023. The project increased its neonatal intensive care unit size to 97 beds and added a 36-bed labor and delivery unit, a 24-bed antepartum unit, four birthing suites, an obstetrics emergency department and new cesarean section rooms. There were 10,252 babies born at the center last year, said Peter DeYoung, chief medical officer of North Austin Medical Center. “We’re running about 15% ahead of last year so far, so we anticipate we’ll break 11,000 deliveries this year,” DeYoung said. Additionally, the number of babies in the NICU averages in the mid-70s, DeYoung said. “We’re really thankful to have that space to accommodate them, knowing as we get busier in the summer we’ll have peaks well into the 80s and 90s,” DeYoung said. Births at St. David's Women's Center of Texas The number of births at the center, located inside the North Austin Medical Center, have steadily increased over the last five years.

originally set to open in 2024. Rising capital costs and interest rates have delayed the project and substantially increased the expected investment, Huffstutler said. “To ensure that we develop a financially feasible and economically reasonable facility, we stepped back and looked at, ‘What are some other options there?’” Huffstutler said. Officials also re-evaluated the size and scope of their future Leander hospital in 2024 due to the area’s growing population and need for access to health care specialties.

St. David’s HealthCare is moving forward with its $953 million investment in building or expanding its health care facilities across the Austin metro area, an initiative first announced in 2022 to address the region’s population growth and increasing health care needs. The investment includes projects in Austin, Kyle, Leander and Round Rock. The system has completed a handful of these projects already, including expansions at its women’s centers at the North and South Austin medical centers. One of the largest projects in North Austin is a behavioral health hospital, which was

St. David’s 2022 project updates Some of St. David’s $953 million worth of health care construction and expansion projects have been completed, while others are still in progress or facing delays.

Project

Cost

Status

Behavioral health hospital

$50 million*

Facing delays

Leander hospital

$250 million**

Facing delays

Kyle hospital

$290-$300 million***

In progress

North Austin Medical Center expansion Adding capacity at local hospitals to accommodate future growth St. David's Medical Center renovation

$177 million****

In progress

$80 million

In progress

Estimated number of births

11,000 10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 0

$43 million

In progress

South Austin Medical Center expansion

$249 million

In progress

Heart Hospital of Austin expansion

$20.9 million

Complete

Round Rock Medical Center expansion Complete *ORIGINALLY A $33.8 MILLION INVESTMENT. **ORIGINALLY A $142.5 MILLION INVESTMENT. ***ORIGINALLY A $185 MILLION INVESTMENT. ***ORIGINALLY A $145.9 MILLION INVESTMENT. $53.1 million

SOURCE: ST. DAVID'S HEALTHCARE/COMMUNITY IMPACT

SOURCE: ST. DAVID'S HEALTHCARE/COMMUNITY IMPACT

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