AUSTIN, Texas – (Aug. 26, 2014) – Construction of Seton Healthcare Family’s $295 million, 211-bed teaching hospital started today, with four philosophical cornerstones unveiled that will guide its operations: improving medical care; respect and dignity for patients and their families; educating the next generation of clinicians; and innovating through both practice and research. Seton is part of Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and largest non-profit health system.
Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas will open in 2017 on the northwest corner of Red River and 15th streets. Across Red River, on the northeast corner, The University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School already is under construction and scheduled to open in 2016.
Both buildings will be located on a new medical campus that also will accommodate medical school classrooms, faculty and physician offices and research facilities. The other buildings will surround “Seton Medical Center at UT” and stretch from Interstate Highway 35 west to Trinity Street.
Seton, which is investing $245 million in the project and raising another $50 million through philanthropy, will own and operate the new hospital. It will be built on land owned by UT-Austin and leased to Central Health, Travis County’s health care district, which will sub-lease the land to Seton at fair market value.
Like the medical school, Seton’s teaching hospital is part of Texas State Sen. Kirk Watson’s bold 10 Goals in 10 Years initiative to improve community health infrastructure. The hospital will replace University Medical Center Brackenridge, erected in the 1970s and not designed to meet the operational needs of a 21st century teaching hospital. Central Health, which owns UMC Brackenridge, is working with the community to determine how best to repurpose the hospital.
“By passing Proposition 1 in November 2012, voters pledged support for a higher standard of health care, expanded services and greater accessibility,” Jesús Garza, Seton president and chief executive officer, said. “To help meet that goal, Seton is building a modern teaching hospital worthy of the world-class Dell Medical School that we are working with UT to develop.”
The teaching hospital will anchor a platform for academic medicine and research across Central Texas that includes Seton Medical Center Austin, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, Seton Shoal Creek Hospital and other facilities in the community.
“This project will have a positive impact on the delivery of health care in Central Texas for generations to come,” said Anthony R. Tersigni, Ed.D., FACHE, president and chief executive officer of Ascension. “As our integrated national health ministry works to reimagine how to provide care in an evolving health care environment, Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas is a shining example of the importance of working in collaboration with others in the community to transform health care for those we are privileged to serve.”
The Seton Fund, with help from community leader fundraising volunteers, is spearheading the effort to raise $50 million from the community – one of the largest goals for a single, nongovernmental building campaign in Austin’s history.
“We’re relying on the generosity of our community to help build this hospital, which will forever elevate health care in Austin,” said Pete Winstead, founder of Winstead PC and chair of Seton’s Future of Care Campaign for the new hospital.
To date, the capital campaign has announced major gifts of $1.5 million from University Federal Credit Union and $1 million each from the Lola Wright Foundation, Shivers Cancer Foundation and the Luci Baines Johnson and Ian Turpin family. More information is available online.
The combination of a new teaching hospital and medical school on the campus of a major research university is expected to create 15,000 new jobs, not including construction jobs. About 60 percent of those jobs will require two years of college or a training certificate.
JE Dunn Construction is the general contractor for the project. HKS is the lead architect.
About Seton Healthcare Family
The Seton Healthcare Family, a faith-based non-profit organization founded in 1902 by the Daughters of Charity, is the leading provider of comprehensive, advanced health care and services in Central Texas.
Seton operates more than 100 clinical locations including four medical centers, a world class pediatric medical center, two community hospitals, three rural hospitals, an inpatient mental health hospital, three primary care clinics for the uninsured and several strategically located health facilities. The system offers the region’s only Level I Trauma Centers for adult and pediatric patients, and its first heart transplant program. Seton’s insurance division works with commercial insurance companies, community physicians and Medicaid and Medical Access programs for low-income persons, to assist in the management of the region’s overall health.
Seton is home to The University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center’s Austin medical residency programs, as well as the Seton/UTSW Clinical Research Institute.
The organization’s role in education, research and spiritual programming furthers Seton’s mission to improve the health of the communities it serves, with special concern for the poor and vulnerable, as it prepares the region’s next generation of clinicians. In Fiscal Year 2013, Seton provided $340 million in charity care.
Generous donors and a culture of giving nurtured by trustees, volunteers and staff help Seton further the Daughters of Charity health care ministry.
Seton is a member of Ascension Health, the healthcare delivery subsidiary of Ascension. For more information, please visit www.seton.net.
About Ascension
Ascension (www.ascension.org) is a Catholic healthcare organization dedicated to the transformation of healthcare through excellent clinical care throughout the continuum of care and through innovation. Ascension is the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit health system, providing the highest quality care to all with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable. Last year, Ascension provided $1.5 billion in care of persons living in poverty and community benefit programs. Its Mission-focused Health Ministries employ more than 150,000 associates serving in more than 1,900 sites of care in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Ascension’s direct subsidiaries provide services that include healthcare delivery, medical equipment management, treasury management, resource and supply management, venture capital investing, physician practice management, and risk management.
