Just over 14 months after breaking ground, Ascension's Seton Healthcare Family celebrated the "topping out" of Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, a major construction milestone that marks the placement of the new Austin, Texas, hospital's highest structural beam.
Actually, there were two beams, both of which were painted white and adorned with the emblems of Seton and the new hospital.
They were placed in the main lobby of University Medical Center Brackenridge Nov. 11-12, where they were signed by hundreds of doctors, nurses and other associates, as well as donors, patients, VIPs and other visitors. Donors also signed the beams during a special Seton Fund reception held Nov. 11 in the Clinical Education Center at Brackenridge.
Autographs filled nearly every available space. Some signers crawled under the beams to sign the bottom, where there was more available room to write. Others filled in the white lines within the Seton cross on the emblems with their names. Still others carefully printed their names on the beams' tiny edges.
Some wrote more, including:
- "Dear God, thank you for this structure, where we will put your gifts to us, our knowledge of healing, to help all who are in need. Always through you, God. Amen."
- "Although this building is sure to be a place of unforeseen suffering, may it also house limitless compassion between patients, families, caregivers and learners."
There also was a message about UMC Brackenridge, which will be replaced by Dell Seton Medical Center at UT:
- "To those that come and those who go, this will always be the first place I called home."
Time Capsule
Beam-signers also were invited to suggest items to be placed in a time capsule that will be buried on site at the new hospital, which is scheduled to open in spring 2017. A sampling of the suggestions:
- UMC Brackenridge scrubs
- Copy of the first letter designating UMC Brackenridge a Level I trauma center
- Pictures of Dr. Robert Brackenridge and the founders of the Daughters of Charity, who founded Seton: St. Vincent de Paul, St. Louise de Marillac and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
- A piece of the huge rock in the UMC Brackenridge basement
- Photos of the Daughters of Charity
- Photos of therapy dogs
- A Living the Humancare PROMISE poster
- Popcorn!
Video Vision of the Future, and More
Click here to see a new, animated, "fly around" video of what Dell Seton Medical Center at UT will look like – inside and out.
Click here for more photos of the event, which was covered by local media including Fox 7, KEYE, Time Warner Cable News and the Austin Business Journal.
Christann Vasquez, President of both UMC Brackenridge Dell Seton Medical Center at UT, hosted the event and talked about how much she's looking forward to the opening of the new hospital.
Jesús Garza, Senior Vice President, Ascension Health/Texas Ministry Market Executive, and Texas State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, also spoke. See videos of Jesús Garza's and Christann Vasquez's remarks.
A blessing was offered by Jonathan Ford, the new Chief Mission Integration Officer for Ascension Texas, which includes Seton Healthcare Family in Austin and Providence Healthcare Network in Waco.
Lifting the Beam
After the remarks, TV videographers and photographers accompanied many of the more than 50 people present when they walked across the bridge from UMC Brackenridge's main lobby to the hospital garage elevators, which took them to the parking structure's top level.
There, they gathered on the north side, looking across 15th Street at Dell Seton Medical at UT. While cheering and taking personal photos and videos, they watched a crane pick up one of the autographed ceremonial beams from the ground and place it atop the building.
About DSMC at UT
Dell Seton Medical Center at UT will be a new teaching hospital in downtown Austin that can be expanded in the future. It will be built, owned and operated by Seton.
It will be the primary teaching hospital for Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin – but not the only one.
At Seton Medical Center Austin, Seton Shoal Creek Hospital and Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, doctors also will be training other doctors, conducting groundbreaking research and implementing new treatments. Through education, training and research, it will be a vital link to the future of care in Central Texas.
Seton has funded most of the costs for graduate medical education in Austin since 2005, and is committed to continuing this support in partnership with UT. The new medical school is the first to be built in the U.S. at a Tier 1 research university in nearly half a century. Seton is playing a major role in helping to shape the school's signature curriculum and research efforts, focused on creating a more efficient and effective healthcare system and training future physician leaders.
Dell Seton Medical Center at UT, like UMC Brackenridge, will house Central Texas' only Level I trauma center for adults. The trauma center gives patients in 11 counties round-the-clock access to skilled trauma specialists.
