CONTINUED FROM 1 EXPANDED SERVICES Ascension Seton and St. David’s HealthCare both have plans to bring new services and make improvements to existing facilities in Georgetown.
ST. DAVID’S GEORGETOWN HOSPITAL Scope: St. David’s HealthCare plans to add a cardiac catheterization, or cath, lab in the Georgetown hospital. Cath labs allow doctors to diagnose and treat heart abnormalities. In addition, the medical provider has plans to bring a new medical oce to the Georgetown campus. Cath lab equipment/common procedures: • Imaging equipment to visualize heart arteries and chambers • Coronary stenting (when a metal tube is inserted into a blocked or damaged artery to allow blood to ow) • Removal of blood clots and plaque found in arteries Timeline: Late 2023
ASCENSION SETON HEALTH CENTER GEORGETOWN Scope: The 60,000-square-foot facility is the rst of three phases to bring additional services to Georgetown. New facilities include: • A 20,000-square-foot outpatient surgery center • A 30,000-square-foot medical oce building with orthopedics, dermatology, heart and vascular, and gastroenterology specialties • A 10,000-square-foot imaging center with CT scan, MRI and X-ray capabilities Timeline: Summer 2023
SOURCES: ASCENSION SETON, ST. DAVID’S HEALTHCARECOMMUNITY IMPACT
the spectrum, it’s a lot of young families also at the same time coming up,” said Raymond Anderson, chief strategy ocer for Ascension Texas. Emergency responses St. David’s is taking heart-related care a step fur- ther as plans are in place to install technology for a catheterization, or cath, lab at the Georgetown site. Cath labs, which can be used for both outpatient and inpatient care, allow medical teams to examine arteries and chambers of the heart before treating any abnormalities found. While patients admitted into a cath lab often originate as outpatients, they can also be brought in for life-saving procedures in the event someone is experiencing a heart attack. Georgetown EMS already takes the majority of its transports to St. David’s Georgetown Hospital. How- ever, re Chief John Sullivan said when emergency medical technicians or paramedics assess a patient
who has a high likelihood of experiencing a heart attack, they will bring them to Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital, St. David’s Round Rock Med- ical Center or Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Round Rock. Once Georgetown gets its own cath lab, though, rst responders will have one more place to bring patients in an emergency. “As they get a cath lab, then that’s where it would lend itself for patients that are having [myocardial infarctions] can be transported there,” Sullivan said. “I think that’s a huge thing for the community—that they have that capability.” The area EMS services are also adding to their eets to keep up with the growth. Georgetown EMS operates with ve full-time ambulances. The depart- ment aims to add additional ambulances during the busier parts of the day to work 10- to 12-hour shifts. Georgetown is the only city in Williamson County other than Austin that has its own EMS department.
The remainder of the county is served by the Wil- liamson County EMS, which only typically answers calls to Georgetown when there has been a request for mutual aid. Knipstein said the department has 16 ambu- lances working 24 hours a day and three more ambulances working during the daytime. The department is set to add one more crew to serve the Round Rock area later this year, while Knip- stein also put in a request for another ambulance to cover the Liberty Hill area next year. Outpatient expansions St. David’s HealthCare and Ascension Seton are both looking to oer a more comprehensive level of health care services to Georgetown with much of the focus on outpatient services. Ascension’s new 60,000-square-foot facility, expected to open sometime in late June or early July,
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