Methodist Boerne Medical Center Opens to a Welcoming Community
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Boerne residents used to travel to San Antonio or community hospitals in other counties to meet much of their health-care needs. That all changed in April 2007 with completion of the first phase of the new Methodist Boerne Medical Center in the Menger Springs area.
“Past growth in Boerne‚ growth projections and the long relationship that Methodist Healthcare has enjoyed with the Boerne community made it a natural progression for us to try to put services in Boerne. We’ve been the most-preferred provider in Kendall County and surrounding areas for the past 30 years‚” says Dean Alexander‚ chief executive officer of Methodist Boerne Medical Center.
An $11 million‚ 70‚000-square-foot medical office building is open for business‚ and construction on a $13.6 million freestanding emergency department is slated for completion in December 2007. “We’re anticipating seeing about 10‚000 patients the first year in the emergency department‚ and then ramping up to close to 14‚000 by the third year‚” Alexander says.
The three-story office building already houses an expanded Boerne Imaging Center‚ which offers all imaging options‚ including computed tomography and magnetic resonance‚ and South Texas Oncology and Hematology‚ equipped with a linear accelerator for the latest in cancer radiation therapy. Those two tenants alone occupy 90 percent of the first floor. The building is also the new home for a variety of specialists in cardiology‚ oral surgery‚ internal medicine and pediatric sports medicine‚ with more practices expected to lease space throughout the fall.
Alexander describes the soon-to-open emergency facility as “a 15‚000-square-foot‚ 15-bed‚ fully functioning‚ 24/7‚ 911 emergency department.” It will offer immediate intervention for serious emergencies when time is critical or stabilize a patient for transport to a larger San Antonio hospital either by ambulance or helicopter. The facility will have its own helipad.
Methodist is approaching the development of health-care facilities in Boerne in a methodical manner‚ first offering the most in-demand services such as imaging and oncology‚ and then expanding. Emergency was the logical next step‚ Alexander explains. “The emergency department is truly the front door to the hospital. Nationwide‚ the majority of people who are admitted to hospitals come through emergency‚” he says. “By putting an emergency department in Boerne‚ it will help us gauge how big of a hospital we need to build and then bring that later on.”
In Boerne’s future may be outpatient surgery facilities‚ another medical office building and eventually the hospital of at least 50 beds‚ based on need. “More and more folks want to receive care closer to where they live‚” Alexander says. “We want to accommodate that and do it in a lockstep method so we can bring those services to towns like Boerne as soon as we can.”
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
