Cedar Park - Far Northwest Austin Edition | June 2023

2023 HEALTH CARE EDITION

Taking on Texas Children’s While Dell Children’s takes claim to the longest residency in Austin, the Texas Children’s Hospital in Hous- ton is the largest children’s hospital in the United States. Beyond Houston, Texas Children’s has 19 primary care practices in the Austin market, said Russ Williams, senior vice presi- dent of the Texas Children’s Hospi- tal North Austin campus. The new facility being built in far Northwest Austin is the system’s rst full-ser- vice pediatric hospital in the area. “One of the primary reasons that Texas Children’s made the decision to invest in Austin the way that they have is that there were far too many children that we were seeing in Hous- ton from Austin,” Williams said. With 52 beds and about 365,000 square feet, the new hospital opening in February will oer a range of ser- vices for patients, such as a NICU, heart and brain surgery, full-service imag- ing and an emergency center, said Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, medical director of the new hospital. The hospital is also seeking the highest level of trauma certication for the emergency room and the NICU available in a hospital. The hospital will also oer women’s services, such as high-risk maternity care and fetal intervention surgery, which operates on a fetus in the womb. An additional service the hospital will provide that is not oered by many hospitals is ECMO, a complex life support machine that replicates the work of the heart and lungs to allow the body to recover, Vartabedian said. Along with a new hospi- tal also comes the technolog- ical innovations to increase coordination between doctors in Aus- tin and Houston to collaborate on diag- nosis and care solutions, Williams said.

COMPARING GROWTH The number of pediatric doctors in Williamson and Travis counties has risen in the past decade, according to data from the Texas Medical Board, and Texas Children’s has plans to bring almost 150 more.

CITY DEMOGRAPHICS Over 35% of the population in Cedar Park, Round Rock and Leander is under the age of 18.

Travis County

2013

+41.83%

2023

Williamson County

Ages 18-64

Up to age 4

2013

Age 65 and older

Ages 5-17

+62.9%

2023

0 200 400

600

19.5%

SOURCE: TEXAS MEDICAL BOARDCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Number of pediatric doctors

9.3%

AUSTIN

65.4%

Another element unique to Texas Children’s is its approach to children with complex medical needs, Vartabe- dian said. Compared to some other sys- tems that have private practices chip in to provide services for each individual part of a procedure or care plan, Texas Children’s has a more integrated sys- tem that will provide each of those ser- vices in one setting, Vartabedian said. The hospital will create jobs for 149 doctors in the area and is still on track for its 2024 open- ing, Vartabedian and Williams said. Choosing care In terms of footprint, the new Texas Children’s facility will oer more beds than the Dell Children’s Medical Center North Campus, with 52 beds compared to 36. However, Dell Children’s has room to expand to 72 beds in the future. The Dell Children’s northern cam- pus will also oer more emergency room beds with 18 compared to 13 at Texas Children’s, but Texas Chil- dren’s will oer seven operating rooms, compared to the existing two at Dell Children’s north campus. When it comes to choosing which hospital to take their child, parents have a variety of factors to con- sider, and care between facilities might not dier that greatly from a

services standpoint, Vartabedian said. “I think the scope of what we oer may not be hugely dierent than other folks around town, but I think the level of care and the level of ser- vice that we will deliver will prob- ably stand above what patients can access now,” Vartabedian said. “We know we’re coming in with a smaller market share, and we have to earn that, and we’re ready to do that.” Cossey said Dell Children’s Med- ical Center North Campus has the advantage of having another larger facility just down the street with more expansive services. “If we don’t have some of the more specialized surgical services at that site, we have our sister site at the cen- tral campus just a few miles down the road,” Cossey said. “We’re able to con- nect with our central campus to pro- vide the care that our patients need.” Regardless of which hospital parents choose to take their children, William- son County residents will stand to ben- et, County Judge Bill Gravell said. “Having excellent pediatric medical care close to home lls a need in our growing community,” Gravell said.

5.8%

26.4%

CEDAR PARK

57.7%

10.1%

5.8%

29.7%

LEANDER

54.6%

7.7%

26%

ROUND ROCK

58.6%

9.5%

5.9%

For more information, visit communityimpact.com .

SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU COMMUNITY IMPACT

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CEDAR PARK FAR NORTHWEST AUSTIN EDITION • JUNE 2023