Published: June 27, 2009 10:30 pm      

Seton Medical Center on track for opening

Kyle — Hays County will soon have another hospital.

Seton Medical Center Hays, a 112-bed medical facility, is scheduled to open in October in Kyle.

And it will have room to grow.

The hospital is currently under construction with five floors. The ground floor houses an imaging department, emergency room, pharmacy, dining room, women’s center and room for eight operating rooms — though just two will be functional when the facility opens. Floor two will be a patient room floor with Intensive Care Unit. Floors three and four will house surgical patient rooms, and floor five will be a “shell floor” that will be used for further expansion, Doug Strange, senior facilities project manager, said.

“The model allows us to expand out based on demand,” said Herb Dyer, vice president and chief operations officer for Seton. “If there is a demand there, we will be able to rise to the occasion.”

The 205-acre site allows for horizontal expansion as well, Strange said.

The hospital will offer a full-service emergency department, critical care, inpatient medical services including oncology, surgical care including orthopedics, cardiac care services including an open heart program, diagnostic and interventional services, outpatient therapies and women’s services including labor and delivery, obstetrics/gynecology and a nursery, Seton officials said.

A helipad will be located outside the emergency room area, with room for a second in the future. Also, the campus leaves room for a second bed tower, said Dyer.

When completed, the $143.7 million, 331,761 square foot facility will be the largest medical center in Hays County.

Though based on census figures, Seton does not expect to be the only facility in the area for very long.

“We’ll have neighbors soon I think,” said Strange.

Dyer said Seton is looking to employ 96 surgeons for the first phase and will open with at least 20.

The hospital will have an emergency room, but will not have a trauma center, he said.

“In terms of extreme situations like reattaching a limb, we won’t be able to do that here,” Dyer said.

Instead, those patients will be transported to University Medical Center at Brackenridge in Austin. Dyer said there will be a neurosurgeon on staff and the facility will be able to handle less serious cases.

Seton Hays will open with 112 beds, but will have the ability to open 144 patient rooms.

Upon expansion, Strange said the maximum number of beds will reach almost 300.

About $20 million of medical equipment like x-ray imaging and catheterization labs will be installed before opening.

“Thousands of things need to be done before treating patient one,” Strange said.

When Seton Hays opens its doors, it will serve a 28-mile radius, which is about 185,000 people, Dyer said.

Next to the hospital will be a medical office building, also with room for expansion, that will house offices for specialists and other services.