COVER STORY, MARCH 2008

FOR YOUR BETTER HEALTH
A snapshot of the new-look healthcare industry in Texas.
Dan Marcec

With the continual technological and medical advances, the healthcare industry across the nation must remain on the cutting edge of scientific research. In addition, to meet the needs of an ever-growing population, hospitals not only have to update, but they also have to expand. Hardly any place in the nation is seeing a population boom like Texas, and as a result, healthcare officials and organizations are identifying the need for new facilities and hospitals. Texas Real Estate Business spoke with officials involved with three major medical development projects in Texas.

Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute

Tellepsen Builders LP is building the 370,000-square-foot Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

Located in the heart of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Tellepsen Builders LP is constructing the 13-floor, 370,000-square-foot Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, which is being designed with a focus on collaborative research, education and identification on new developments with regards to pediatric neurological disorders. In addition to extensive research on epilepsy, autism, Rett syndrome, learning disorders, cerebral palsy and other afflictions that affect our children, the NRI is not exclusively focused on pediatrics, with its research also identifying and impacting adult conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and inherited balance disorders.

Constructed from the ground-up at a cost of approximately $215 million, the NRI is named after Jan and Dan Duncan, who provided a $50 million gift to Institute’s efforts. With more than 15 principal investigators and their teams totaling more than 170 researchers, the collaborative research efforts at the institute will promise new and better treatments for those affected by neurological afflictions. The official groundbreaking for the project was held on December 11, 2007, and completion is expected in 2010.

“It’s a bold vision, and Texas Children’s has the talent and expertise in place to make it happen,” says Mark A. Wallace, president and CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital. 

As more than 1 billion people are affected by some form of neurological disorder — inclusive of 50 million adults and children in the United States — brain-related afflictions account for a significant portion of long-term healthcare costs; combined with psychiatric disorders, neurological diseases account for more hospitalizations and long-term attention than nearly all other illnesses combined. As a result, the potential for the NRI’s impact is extraordinarily high, looking to change the lives of children. Thus, as new treatments are developed, the effect snowballs and these children grow up to have families of their own, creating a cycle of neurological health and diminishing the overall risk and damage neurological disease might cause. 

Designed by Perkins & Will, the NRI’s structure itself will be an aesthetic beauty, making it a landmark on the Houston landscape. A transparent tower runs the height of the building, twisting — inspired by a DNA helix — to look back upon the Texas Children’s Hospital main campus. Furthermore, the twisted structure represents the collaborative and intertwined spirit of the research conducted within the Institute.

The overall impact of the NRI will manifest in a variety of ways. As the first dedicated facility in the U.S. to multidisciplinary research regarding a child’s unique brain structure, development patterns and related diseases, it will ideally produce groundbreaking insight on the causes of pediatric afflictions such as autism and Rett syndrome, while pointing to the impetuses for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s as well.

“What we hope to do with this institute is treat these diseases in a very definitive way so that children can live a healthy life,” says Ralph D. Feigin, M.D., physician-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital.  

Finally, the NRI will provide an important gathering ground for scientists and physicians from surrounding institutions, being physically connected both to the Baylor College of Medicine and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to enable key collaborations.

Texoma Medical Center

Situated at a major intersection of U.S. Highway 75 northeast of Dallas in Denison, Texas, Birmingham, Alabama-based Brasfield & Gorrie and Universal Health Systems are developing the new Texoma Medical Center (TMC), an updated, expanded version of the healthcare facility of the same name that has operated in Denison since 1965. The hospital itself will encompass 350,000 square feet, including 200 private beds, each room complete with internet access, plasma screen televisions and family areas. In addition, a 120,000-square-foot medical office building for physician offices will be a key portion of the development.

Excavation on TMC will begin this April, and the construction period is expected to last just less than 2 years, with completion scheduled for January 2010. Project cost is estimated at approximately $200 million, but the budget is yet to be completely finalized.

“About 3 years ago, we created a long-term strategy with our board of directors, and realized that to renovate and enlarge the existing Texoma Medical Center into a 21st century facility would be inefficient and expensive, so we decided to build a whole new property,” says Mackey Watkins, CEO of Texoma Medical Center. “As a standalone, not-for-profit hospital, we knew we couldn’t raise the funding to develop the facility we would need, so Universal Health Systems acquired us and we shifted to a for-profit model. UHS already has five hospitals in Texas and one  in Oklahoma, so they were already familiar with developing a healthcare facility in the area.”

The design of the hospital itself, created by lead architect Noel Barrick and HKS, Inc., is predicated on several factors. First, Watkins explains that a new location was key. Located now approximately 2 miles off Highway 75, TMC will be much more accessible in its new position. Though the site is in a rural area now on the border of Denison and Sherman, Texas, the new TMC will invite ancillary development in not only the healthcare industry but in retail especially as well. Furthermore, with eight new hospitals within a 45-minute drive, a facility with top-notch quality and amenities became essential.

Though the external design is not finalized, the exterior will be composed of glass, steel and stone, anchored by a two-story structure housing the hospital facilities, and a seven-story bed tower running north and south.

“The most important aspect of the new facility is how conveniently arranged the interior will be; as soon as you enter the lobby, signage will point to the appropriate department,” says Watkins. “There is an enlarged emergency wing, 28 private treatment areas each with its own separate entry, and a kitchen and dining area will have various sites for different food options. We also added conference rooms, class rooms and A/V rooms for educational processes, and we have a helipad as well.”

Offering the same full-service healthcare as the current TMC, the new facility will be up-to-date with all the latest technology that might be created even as the project is developing. As TMC has expanded, the hospital has gone vertical and horizontal, increasing the amount of response time for its employees, and the new layout will be conducive to better and more efficient service.

“As the workforce issues nationally are predicted to worsen as far as availability of physicians goes, having a new facility will help our recruiting in that area, allowing us to keep top-notch healthcare here,” says Watkins.

Methodist West Houston Hospital

Moving westward from the city of Houston, The Methodist Hospital System, Texas is developing a new facility on 86 acres. Utilizing 46 of those acres for the initial development, the $300 million facility will include a six-story hospital, a six-story medical office building and a two-story central utility plant.  Comprising 200 beds, 14 operating rooms, a breast center, radiation therapy and labor and delivery services along with many other amenities such as imaging capabilities, the new Methodist West Houston Hospital will serve cancer, cardiac and orthopedic patients from the Texas Medical Center. Furthermore, its emergency department holds the capacity to treat more than 30,000 patients annually.

Project manager Parsons and construction manager Austin Commercial tentatively plan to break ground on the new development this April, with completion of the project expected in September 2010. Page Southerland and Page is providing architectural services. With more than 500 staff members when the hospital opens, the eventual employee base is expected to grow to more than 1,100 over seven years.

“The Methodist Hospital System has served the Houston community more almost 90 years, and we continually look for ways to expand our services and meet the evolving needs of our population; as a result we’re excited about the opportunity to bring our long history of leading medicine and excellent patient care to the quickly growing West Houston community,” says Wayne Voss, vice president of community development for The Methodist Hospital System. “Further, like all hospitals within the our system, here we’ll integrate our spiritually healing environment into Methodist West Houston Hospital; modeled after Methodist Willowbrook and Sugar Land hospitals, patients certainly will recognize this as one of our facilities.”

Offering more sophisticated care for the residents in the West Houston area, the new facility will have services available that previously were not in the area, such as open heart surgery and radiation therapy for cancer patients, adding an important segment of healthcare to the growing community.

“By integrating select training experience for medical residents and bringing The Methodist Hospital Research Institute into a community setting, we look forward to bringing to West Houston the excellent patient care for which Methodist is known,” says Voss. “We also look forward to a giving physicians, nurses and other staff the opportunity to work within their own community, which is important to the growth and health of this area.”

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