Wellness Center

A management agreement for the new Mission Fitness Center at the Center for Health and Wellness will headline the monthly meeting of the Ector County Hospital District board at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The hospital district broke ground on the 72,000-square-foot, $15.6 million facility Tuesday, and Hardin Construction is expected to complete construction in enough time for an October 2010 opening. However, the hospital still has to request final approval for management of the fitness portion of the facility by the national company Healthplex Associates. Healthplex will be responsible for a successful startup and operation of the center and contract for the service employees.

“This is a new business for us, and it’s a way to get started off right,” MCH CEO Bill Webster said.

He said Healthplex currently manages about 25 other hospital-based wellness centers across the country. In exchange for the management, MCH administrator Carol Durham said Healthplex would receive 4.5 percent of the revenue.

The center will house a variety of fitness equipment and facilities, including two indoor pools and a large exercise room.

In addition to the wellness center agreement, Durham said the board will also consider an agreement with Thompson Reuters for a Care Discovery health software program intended to help with tracking quality of care on a per patient basis.

In other business, board members will consider a change in privileges for some medical staff and agreements for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists within the ProCare medical network owned by Medical Center Hospital. They will also consider future dates for board meetings.

The board will also recognize Robbin Herrington, Don Owens and Barbara Dingman as employees of the month.

The full board meeting follows a finance meeting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.