SA hospital system making major investments to become bigger pediatric player

University Hospital in South Texas Medical Center, San Antonio, TX

University Health System is investing more than $60 million and is pursuing a new designation for its University Hospital in an effort to become a more formidable competitor in the pediatric arena.

UHS has operated for years as a Level I trauma facility, handing some of the most severely injured adult patients in San Antonio and South Texas. Now, it’s working with the American College of Surgeons to secure similar top-level status for its pediatric trauma care. The designation could come as soon as July.

That comprehensive pediatric strategy also includes a major renovation of University Hospital’s Horizon Tower. The nearly $61 million project will allow the Bexar County taxpayer-funded health system to expand its hospital-based pediatric programs in the South Texas Medical Center.

It will include the development of a separate pediatric emergency department, new pediatric operating rooms, a designated unit for pediatric heart patients and a center for pediatric patients with cancer and blood disorders.

Some of those new facilities, including the pediatric emergency department, will be completed later this year.

Click to read entire article: SA hospital system making major investments to become bigger pediatric player (SABJ, 3/23/16)