Children’s Health And UT Southwestern Plan New $2.5 Billion Dallas Pediatric Medical Campus

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Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center are in the planning stages of a new pediatric campus in Dallas.

The two entities estimated a $1.6 billion construction budget and a total project cost of $2.5 billion, according to original solicitation documents obtained by D CEO Magazine. (The project was first reported last year by the website Strategic Partnerships Inc., which follows large procurement projects across the country.)

The hospitals released the solicitation documents seeking contractors in January 2022 and had a goal of completing the project by 2028, according to the original solicitation.

“The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Health System of Texas, on behalf of the Joint Pediatric Enterprise, are soliciting statements of qualifications for selection of an Architect/Engineer firm for the New Pediatric Campus,” the executive summary reads.

The documents describe a new pediatric hospital with 532 beds, an emergency department with 90 bays, more than 90 newborn intensive care unit beds, and services to support a new labor and delivery program with approximately 30 beds. Neither health system responded to an email requesting confirmation of those specifics. Because the project is in its early stages, the specs are likely to change. The existing Dallas main campus has 490 beds.

In an internal email to UT Southwestern staff last fall, President Dr. Daniel Podolsky mentioned the new campus among other developments in the works at UTSW.

Dr. Podolsky wrote: “The planning for the new pediatric campus will accelerate as our joint pediatric experience enables our two organizations to work together to provide care to children and support their families. The new hospital and expanded ambulatory services will advance our pediatric care strategic plans and strengthen our longstanding partnership with Children’s.”

An agreement with a vendor was supposed to have been executed last May, and an 18-month planning and design process was set to commence last June. According to the UT Southwestern supplier bid portal, that RFQ has been awarded. A UT Southwestern spokesman did not respond to an email requesting comment on “design and other related services for a new children’s hospital in Dallas” on Monday.

Children’s Health and UTSW released a joint statemen that read: “Our joint pediatric enterprise is always pursuing opportunities to bolster capacity to provide care in response to record population growth and demand for pediatric specialty services in North Texas. To meet these needs, we are exploring a possible new pediatric campus. Specific details on a project of this magnitude are not final, or approved, and may not be for some time. We look forward to sharing accurate, finalized, information with the community if it is approved by both our institutions and associated boards.”

According to the original timeline in the documents, “schematic design documents” were supposed to be presented to the Board of Regents for approval next month. Final “design development documents” were to be submitted to the regents in August, and construction was originally planned to begin next year. A new timeline for the project was not immediately available.

The original solicitation documents also say that the new facility is set to replace all the services offered in the current hospital and bring services from other facilities to the new campus. The project description included plans for a new master plan for the campus, an administrative building for clinical and support staff, an ambulatory care facility with 250 exam rooms, a utility plant to support the campus, at least one parking garage with 6,500 spaces, and other infrastructure elements. Whether these details make it into the final plans is yet to be determined.

Children’s Health was founded in 1913, growing and expanding into its location in 1967 with 130 beds. In 2008, Children’s approved the construction of a campus in Plano, which now has 72 beds. In 2014, the organization rebranded to Children’s Health. It currently serves 800,000 visits annually.

The hospital is unlikely to be built in the exact location of the existing campus to avoid any interruptions in service, but the joint venture with UTSW makes the new site likely to be located somewhere in the Medical District. The area has several open spaces, especially north of the current campus near Inwood Boulevard and Harry Hines Boulevard. Final design plans have not yet been approved.

The Medical District has been bustling with construction projects. In December, the state broke ground on a new psychiatric hospital across the street from the Children’s Health Dallas. The project received $282.5 million from the state, and Children’s Health donated $200 million to support a pediatric psychiatric wing. It will have 296 beds, with 96 reserved for children. That state hospital is set to finish construction in 2025.

A Texas Public Information Act request to review documents related to the new pediatric hospital submitted has yet to be fulfilled by UT Southwestern.

 

Source: D CEO Magazine

The St. Joe Company, Tallahassee Memorial Health Care And Florida State University Break Ground On New HealthCare Campus

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The St. Joe Company, Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare celebrated the construction kickoff Tuesday, January 17, 2023 of a health care campus in Panama City Beach that will bring together clinicians, researchers and students to better serve the medical needs of the Florida Panhandle.

The FSU Health-Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Medical Campus will be located on an 87-acre parcel of land just minutes from the Latitude Margaritaville Watersound community, St. Joe’s 55-plus community that recently sold its 1,000th home.

“Today’s celebration represents a very important step forward for our community,” says Jorge Gonzalez, President and CEO of The St. Joe Company. “This medical campus, backed by the expertise of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and Florida State University, is a crucial element for supporting the health and well-being of residents and visitors in every stage of life. It also has the potential to create synergistic opportunities between research, education, and clinical delivery, to enhance quality of life throughout the region and beyond.”

Development plans include an 80,000-square-foot medical office building scheduled to be complete in 2024. This medical office building is planned to ultimately house TMH Physician Partners – Primary Care, Tallahassee Memorial Urgent Care Center, an ambulatory surgery center, as well as cardiology and orthopedic services. Plans include a 100-bed hospital with an emergency center and other inpatient services, including surgery, cardiology procedures and imaging, expected to be completed in 2027.

The project will also include opportunities for FSU researchers focused on aging and digital health, as well as residency programs and educational rotations for FSU medical students.

“Today’s construction kickoff comes at a pivotal time for TMH as we celebrate our 75th anniversary this year,” said Mark O’Bryant, President & CEO of TMH, which serves a 21-county area in North Florida, Georgia and Alabama. “We have grown from a small, city-owned hospital into a comprehensive healthcare system. As the population in our region increases, TMH has identified a substantial need to expand healthcare services. Over the past seven and a half decades, we’ve built a reputation for excellent, compassionate and local care, and we are proud to now offer our services to the Panama City Beach communities.”

Over the past several years, Florida State University has been growing its health research portfolio while also pursuing partnerships with major health care systems such as TMH and others. It’s also increased opportunities for students through its College of Medicine, opening a physician’s assistant training program, and is welcoming the first cohort of its new doctoral program in nursing at the College of Nursing this fall.

“FSU has long enjoyed being a part of this community through our Panama City Campus,” said FSU President Richard McCullough. “Now, we’re looking forward to expanding our presence and continuing to serve the residents here through this health care initiative. Research universities can play an important role in a vibrant health care delivery system, and FSU looks forward to playing that role right here in Bay County. This area is experiencing an incredible boom in population and the possibilities — and needs — have never been greater. There are tremendous opportunities for collaboration on research, education, and clinical health care across the region — and I’m excited that it begins right here with this medical campus.”

The university also plans to break ground on the FSU Health Tallahassee Center on the TMH campus later this year with the support of a $125 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature. Gonzalez, O’Bryant and McCullough were joined at the groundbreaking by U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, R-FL, and Panama City Beach Mayor Mark Sheldon as well as TMH Vice President and Chief Health Operations Officer Andrew Starr and other local officials from the Bay County area.

The project has generated considerable interest in the Florida Panhandle and throughout the state. Estimates show that Florida will have a shortfall of 4,700 primary care physicians by 2030 and 60,000 nurses by 2035. At the same time, the state is growing. Florida was the fastest growing state last year, with a population growth of 1.9%.

“Because we are a nonprofit, community-based healthcare system, we recognize that TMH is a community asset that drives the health of our region’s residents,” Starr said. “As we grow, we remain dedicated to the sacred trust given to us by our patients to care for them when they need it most. This is why we are developing strategic partnerships throughout the region and investing in the most advanced lifesaving technology. We are building the best-in-class healthcare system our region deserves.”

View photos from the Construction Celebration here.
View a video of the Construction Celebration here.

 

Source: BusinessWire

Baptist Health Care’s $650-million Pensacola Hospital To Open In The Fall

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In a recent interview with Florida Trend, Mark Faulkner, president and CEO of Baptist Health Care, talked about BHC’s $650-million hospital and 57-acre campus in Pensacola set to open in September.

CHALLENGES: “We broke ground on this project a few weeks after Hurricane Sally hit Pensacola hard in 2020 and also while in the midst of a pandemic. And yet we have remained on our original construction schedule for an opening on Sept. 23, 2023.

It’s been my experience in this project and others we’ve undertaken that challenges such as these bring out the best in people, especially high performers. And I think the challenges we’ve faced during the past two years have made us a better organization and, in a way, helped to re-create ourselves to better serve a rapidly evolving community.”

CHANGES: “Our original plan was to leave the top floor unfinished until our patient growth reached a point where we would need those additional beds. At the time we were projecting a modest annual patient growth of 2.5%. But what we have experienced since then is patient growth far exceeding those projections. We realized we faced the risk of moving into a new hospital facility that would be already very full. Fortunately, we were not too far into the project to make the call to move forward with finishing the construction of the 10th floor that will give us additional general medical surgical beds.”

FUTURE: “We’re working with Pensacola-based Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate to develop a medical office building on our new campus. It would be essentially a master lease where we own the property and Catalyst would construct the building. Catalyst CEO Chad Henderson is surveying the market to see what the future demand is for new office medical space in Pensacola. We don’t know how it’s going to end up looking, whether it’s going to be a larger or smaller project, but we should know pretty soon what his analysis is.”

 

Source: Florida Trend