Health Care Group Plans 2 Campuses
Jul. 15–BOERNE — In its first expansion in 19 years, Christus Santa Rosa Health Care on Thursday announced plans to open a medical complex here next year and another in western San Antonio.
Physicians’ offices and outpatient clinics will mark the first phase of what system officials predict will eventually become comprehensive medical campuses at the 37-acre site here and on a 100-acre parcel in Westover Hills.
Mayor Patrick Heath joined other Boerne area officials in cheering the initiative, expected to reduce reliance on more distant medical providers while adding jobs and millions of dollars to the local tax base.
“We’re always looking for good corporate citizens in our community,” Heath said. “They’ll add yet another dimension to the health care resources we have.”
The sites selected are in fast-growing areas now underserved by the medical community, officials said.
“Everyone will be happy to have health care at their fingertips,” said County Judge Eddie J. Vogt. “This ought to really help our overstretched EMS.”
There’s been talk of locating a hospital here since the 1950s, he said, and the need has grown substantially as the county’s population surged to about 30,000 in recent years.
“The community has really wanted more services because they’re growing so fast,” said Don Beeler, president of Christus Santa Rosa Health Care, which operates three San Antonio hospitals.
He said he expects the new campuses to offer “the entire continuum of health care services.”
The Boerne parcel is between U.S. 87 and Interstate 10 on a major entry corridor to the Kendall County seat of 8,000. The Westover Hills location is at the northwest corner of Texas 151 and Westover Hills Boulevard.
What is built and how soon depends on needs to be identified in meetings with community leaders and physicians, but Beeler said a “pretty aggressive” timetable calls for initial facilities to open within 14 months.
The design will be consistent with local character, he said, noting, “We recognize that Boerne is changing but you want to preserve what is your heart and soul.”
Sister Helena Monahan of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, which built San Antonio’s first hospital 135 years ago, said history was repeating itself as the nonprofit again reached out to areas in need.
“This is exactly the right thing for us to do,” said Monahan, whose congregation joined in 1999 with a Houston branch of the religious order to create Christus Health.
Christus Health has a combined $3.6 billion in assets in seven states and Mexico, and 27,000 employees, officials said.
Tom Royer, president of Christus Health, said the new sites complement existing services by the faith-based provider, which counted $460 million in charitable care among $2.6 billion in revenue logged for the fiscal year that ended last month.
“We were called to Boerne,” he said. “This is really a calling, and it really fits in with our mission.”
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