Uvalde, Texas – (Realty News Report) – Hoar Construction is nearing completion on the new Uvalde Memorial Hospital, a project that addresses the ongoing challenge of delivering high-quality healthcare to America’s small towns and rural communities.
Located about 80 miles west of San Antonio, Uvalde is replacing its outdated hospital, originally built in 1972, with a modern facility designed to better serve local residents and surrounding communities.
“Rural hospitals that require expansion or replacement are often caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Jonathan Mouton, senior project manager at Hoar Construction. “Many providers face mounting operating costs and lost revenue because of outdated or limited services, while also confronting funding constraints that hinder critical capital investments needed for long-term survival.”
The $90 million Uvalde Memorial Hospital marks the sixth rural healthcare project for Hoar Construction in Texas.
The new 170,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open in the fall of 2021 and will replace the original hospital that has served the community since 1972. Population growth in Uvalde and neighboring areas helped prompt Uvalde Memorial Hospital’s leadership to pursue a replacement building that includes services and amenities currently not available.
The replacement project began initial site work in late 2019 after decades of additions and renovations left the original hospital’s infrastructure at the end of its lifecycle.
Designed by Perkins + Will, the new hospital will include 132,870 square feet of institutional space, 31,872 square feet of administrative space, and an 11,500-square-foot central utility plant.
The facility will house a full emergency department, urgent care, radiology services, physical and occupational therapy departments, an intensive care unit, a 25-bed medical-surgical inpatient unit, and 16 outpatient beds. These upgraded departments and amenities are intended to raise the standard of care available to patients, visitors, and staff in the region.
This week Hoar Construction and Uvalde Memorial Hospital officials celebrated the topping out of the new facility, a major milestone in the project’s timeline.
“This construction project brings the number of major construction and renovation projects that I have been involved in to twelve,” said UMH Hospital CEO Tom Nordwick. “This one is larger in scope than most of those projects, so it is reassuring to have a firm with the background and experience that Hoar brings to the table.”
July 20, 2020 Realty News Report Copyright 2020
File: Impacting Rural Healthcare in America
Image: Rendering. Perkins + Will