Odessa health-care facilities showed healthy growth

Area hospitals spent 2008 building and planning to do more building.
In mid-December, Odessa Regional Medical Center was nearing completion on a bridge connecting its east and west campuses. The project was another step in combining the former Odessa Regional Hospital and Alliance Hospital, which ORMC's parent company, Iasis Healthcare, purchased in 2007.
The hospital also is working on another multimillion-dollar project to add eight beds to its neonatal intensive care unit.
ORMC opened up two new units in 2008.  

An antepartum area was designed to help mothers having difficult pregnancies, and the unit's six rooms filled up within two hours of its opening on Sept. 9.
The hospital also opened a 14-bed inpatient therapy unit in space vacated by HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital. It offers physical, occupational and speech therapy for patients with an average stay of 10 to 12 days.
A few blocks away near Medical Center Hospital, ground was broken on the $4 million Desert Milagro Dialysis Center. The 17,000-square- foot building will help with the growing number of area residents suffering from kidney failure.
The Basin Healthcare Center filed a $7 million building permit with the city and is under construction on a city block at 900 East Fourth Street. The new hospital, expected to take about a year to complete, will have 12 beds and four operating rooms and offer magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scans.  

MCH unveiled a second CareStar air ambulance in June. The helicopter is based out of Fort Stockton and is being used to serve the remote oilfields and the Big Bend National Park area.
That wasn't the only medical news for the more far-flung areas of the Basin.

A new 34,000 square foot Iraan General Hospital opened in April. The Pecos County community coughed up tax money to build the $12 million hospital, but that money  turned into a facility three times the size of its previous hospital.
MCH tabbed the Wisconsin-based Hammes Company to develop an ambulatory care center and medical office building on 34 acres it owns on Highway 191 near Faudree Road. Water and sewer lines are expected to be built at the site in January, and construction is expected to take about 18 months to complete.
Work moved a bit slower on MCH's proposed Center for Women and Infants.

The Ector County Hospital District board of directors voted in February to pay Johnson Seefeldt Architects $1.728 million to design the up to 77,000 square foot addition.   Architectural designs and a final cost for the project are expected by April, said Bill Webster, MCH chief executive officer. The board should make a final decision on whether to fund the project, which could cost more than $40 million, in late spring or early summer.
Like most businesses, the medical field was affected by the economic slowdown. Webster said major capital projects would have to be reviewed to make sure they are sound financial moves before decisions to go forward are made.  

He hoped MCH would not be affected by problems that have led to a downgrading in national health-care credit.
"We see some of those trends, but certainly not to the extent of other parts of the country," he said.   No one challenged incumbents Virgil Trower, Judy Hayes and Rich-ard Herrera in the hospital board elections in May, but there was a shakeup in District 5 when incumbent Fred Martin didn't run and no one filed to run for the position.
When the board sought applicants to file for the position, Ceretha Cartwright was the only person to apply.

The board on July 1 approved Cartwright, an owner of Health Maintenance Inc. who had run unsuccessfully against Martin for the position in 2004.
Change came to ORMC when CEO Matt Roberts left for a hospital in the Nashville area. New CEO Bill Porter came from a hospital near Phoenix.   Also, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center continued preparations for the addition of third- and-fourth year medical students. The Permian Basin campus will welcome 18 students in June 2009.