HUMBLE, Texas-Acuity Healthcare Management Corp., an Austin, Texas-based long-term, acute-care company, broke ground on a 42,000-square-foot LTAC hospital outside Houston on May 20. The new facility, which will cost between $12 million and $14 million, will be located in Humble and is expected to open in March 2008, said Ed Cooper, president and chief executive officer at Acuity Healthcare. Acuity will develop and manage the new Icon Hospital and own about a 10% stake in the facility. A group of about 45 physicians from a variety of specialties will own the remainder, Cooper said. Expected to have about 54 acute-care beds, including an eight-bed intensive-care unit, Icon will offer radiology, laboratory, rehabilitative, cardiac and telemetry monitoring and specialized programs in pulmonary disease, wound care and the treatment of medically complex patients. 'The idea came from the physicians in the area who saw their patients having to go outside the area to other LTAC hospitals in Houston,'' Cooper said, adding that a 15-mile drive in Houston can be a 'significant inconvenience'' for patients and families because of heavy traffic congestion. These physicians were also concerned that patient care was compromised when patients had follow-up visits with providers in facilities that were more conveniently located.
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.-Mountain States Health Alliance said it has broken ground on a project to build 71-bed Niswonger Children's Hospital in Johnson City. The $36 million project will bring 82,600 square feet of new construction and renovations to 9,200 square feet in existing facilities. The project will consolidate the system's pediatric services in one facility. The hospital will have its own emergency department and two surgical suites, both designed for pediatric patients. The hospital will be affiliated with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and have one of only five St. Jude affiliated clinics, handling patients from four states.
LACOMBE, La.-MedCath Corp., Charlotte, N.C., said the company and its physician partners in Louisiana Heart Hospital, Lacombe, have agreed to start construction this summer on a 120-bed expansion of the hospital. The expansion will give the hospital capacity for 178 beds eventually, although 40 of those beds will not be built out initially. The cost of building the new patient tower and equipping the 80 beds that will be put in service at first is about $33 million, the company said. The tower is expected to be completed in late fall of 2008. MedCath said the hospital's primary service area, St. Tammany Parish on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, has experienced tremendous population growth after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, which is on the south shore of the lake.
SOUTHLAKE, Texas-LandPlan Development Corp., Frisco, Texas, and Rockwall Hospitals, a Richardson, Texas-based hospital development and management company, plan to build a medical center on 30 acres west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area for about $200 million. The companies are waiting for zoning approval to begin construction on the first phase of the Southlake Regional Medical Center, which will include a 50-bed general hospital. Medical office buildings, clinics and a long-term-care facility will come later, and the entire project could take about two years, according to Jim Williams, president of LandPlan, a real estate development company. 'There is a real need-they don't have a hospital there,'' Williams said of the location. Williams said a group of physicians-about 60 from a variety of specialties-approached LandPlan about the idea. LandPlan has another hospital in Frisco and had been looking for another site. Rockwall Hospitals was formed to jointly develop, operate and own hospitals with physician partners.
CHARLESTON, W.Va.-Charleston Area Medical Center's board of directors has approved the sale of Braxton County Memorial Hospital to a local not-for-profit hospital board for $5 million. The board unanimously approved the deal last week. The sale already has been approved by the Braxton County board, which will take control of the 25-bed hospital July 1. Braxton County Memorial Hospital, located in Gassaway, has been part of the Charleston center's system since 1997. CAMC, which began managing the hospital in the early 1980s, plans to focus on its core market in the Kanawha Valley. CAMC officials said. 'We feel very comfortable with the management and board at Braxton,'' said Larry Hudson, the center's vice president and chief financial officer. 'We'll still be friends and work together, but they will control their own destiny.'' Benjamin Vincent will remain as the hospital's chief executive.
CAPTION(S):
Groundbreaking for Niswonger Children's Hospital was held recently.
