UTSA, UT Health San Antonio strike deal on new outpatient clinic

UT Health San Antonio is further expanding outside of the South Texas Medical Center with plans to build an outpatient clinic on the city’s rapidly growing Northwest Side.

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, which is its legal name, is negotiating a ground lease for the construction of the 80,000-square-foot facility at University of Texas at San Antonio’s Park West Campus.

Although the new clinic will be on UTSA’S property, it will primarily serve the area’s population inside Loop 1604 at Kyle Seale Parkway. The Park West campus, a few miles west of the main campus, has athletic fields and facilities.

“We are excited to bring our comprehensive health care services to this growing community,” said Dr. William Henrich, president of UT Health San Antonio, adding that making “world-class patient care accessible” to San Antonians, closer to where they live, is the institution’s primary objective.

The new clinic, named UT Health Park West, is estimated to cost $50 million to $60 million and will incorporate the latest evidence-based medicine, delivered by distinguished clinicians, UT Health said.

Last week, UT Health San Antonio held a groundbreaking ceremony for its $430 million multispecialty and research hospital expected to open in 2024 in the medical center.

UT Health has five outpatient facilities outside of the medical center, including a small clinic in Boerne called UT Health Hill Country. Construction on UT Health Park West is expected to be completed by summer 2023.

Dr. Carlos Rosende, executive of UT Health Physicians, said the new clinic will come just in time.

UT Health Physicians employs more than 800 doctors, who are board-certified in more than 100 medical specialties. About 30 doctors and 75 staff members will work at UT Health Park West.

“The practice has grown by 90 percent during the last 10 years, and the demand for our physicians continues to grow,” Rosende said. “To improve access to our doctors and better accommodate the needs of our patients, we are expanding beyond the medical center as well as increasing capacity at our current locations.”

UT Health San Antonio will own and operate the clinic with plans to offer primary care and medical specialties, such as physical therapy and rehabilitation, gynecology, gastrointestinal medicine, ear, nose and throat treatment and ophthalmology. Onsite services also will include ambulatory surgery, labs and imaging.

UTSA officials announced Wednesday that its student athletes will be treated by UT Health San Antonio exclusively and that the outpatient clinic will support the university’s sports medicine prodirector

gram.

UT Health San Antonio and UTSA will recruit a fellowship-trained, primarycare sports medicine team physician to lead the new program, according to the news release.

Under the new partnership, student athletes will get enhanced wellness care, physicals, medical and dental consultations, custom molds and mouth guards and priority access for dental, physician and radiology services.

Athletes will also have access to cutting-edge treatment for sports-related injuries so that they can be rehabilitated and return to play.