New hospital to strengthen UT, UHS ties
UT Health San Antonio plans to build a 144-bed teaching hospital, a key component of its joint effort with University Health System to bolster health care in San Antonio, officials said Wednesday.
UT Health and UHS, both publicly funded, are looking to form an integrated health care system, a venture that would operate as a nonprofit with its own board of directors and that could co-develop clinics and other facilities in the future.
The institutions signed an initial, nonbinding agreement Sept. 4.
“We’ve had a 51-year-old partnership with University Health System,” said Dr. William Henrich, president of UT Health San Antonio. “This memorandum of understanding that we’ve signed signals a day in which we advance that partnership.”
UT Health’s planned hospital — a multispecialty research facility estimated to cost up to $430 million — is expected to open in spring 2024. The eight-story hospital will be located at Wurzbach Road and Floyd Curl Drive in the South Texas Medical Center.
A bridge over Floyd Curl will connect the hospital to the Mays Cancer Center.
The facility, which will be part of the University of Texas System, will sit near University Hospital.
“We have intentionally designed the new UT Health hospital to be complementary to the services that are offered at University Hospital,” Henrich said. “We don't want to compete with or duplicate any of those services.”
UT Health will present design plans to the UT system's Board of Regents in mid-november.
Henrich said the hospital will give Bexar County residents more access to cutting-edge technologies and clinical trials. And the partnership with UHS will put them in contact with more specialists at facilities throughout the new health care system.
The venture will mean “fewer patients find it necessary to ever leave San Antonio for the most sophisticated care,” Henrich said.
The finances and existing operations of UT Health and UHS will remain separate, but both parties have committed to work together on a joint-venture plan for future facilities.
George Hernandez, president and CEO of University Health System, said the coordinated system will be more efficient — in part because of the recent upgrade of UHS'S electronic medical record system.
In July, UHS completed the transition to Epic, the same record system used by UT Health's clinical practices.
“This new system will offer substantial benefits to our patients, including more access to services and providers, and an integrated patient medical record,”
Hernandez said.
UHS is building a 12-story tower, which will serve as a new women's and children's hospital, on its main campus. It is expected to open in early 2023.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said creating a UHS-UT Health network should increase patients' access to care regardless of their income.
He said it also could be good for the economy.
“This partnership is an economic engine that involves two of our largest employers,” Wolff said, “and the resulting health delivery system will be a valuable factor in helping us to attract companies that look to relocate to our area.”
The partnership between the public hospital and medical school is also expected to increase training opportunities for medical, nursing, dental students and those in other health professions.
Henrich said the new hospital will increase the number of medical students the school can accept annually, as well as bump up the number of residency slots available for post-graduate students. According to officials, the facility could result in 100 to 130 additional residency positions by 2027.
UT Health has collaborated with UHS, which is countyowned, since both opened in 1968.
In addition to University Hospital, the school currently has agreements with other major health care providers in San Antonio, allowing its post-graduate students to gain hands-on training. They include Christus Santa Rosa Health System, Methodist Healthcare System, Baptist Health System, the VA and the U.S. military.