AUSTIN (KXAN) — Ascension Seton is allocating $280 million to expand and revamp the Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas at Austin, hospital representatives announced in a release Monday.
Currently, Dell Seton Medical Center serves as the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the region. Under the expansion, Ascension Seton officials said the center will add 150 beds and more than 160,000 square feet to the facility.
Some key additions to come include:
Six new operating rooms with pre-operation, post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) space
Inpatient rehabilitation gym
On-call suites
Intensive care unit (ICU) expansion
Clinical, outpatient spaces
Neurology, wound and burn care, oncology and abdominal transplant facilities
Complex digestive health capabilities
It will also feature the addition of a third-level floor facing Red River Street, as well as four new stories built on top of the current patient tower at 1500 Red River St.
The upgrade features were specifically chosen to not only meet the needs of the Austin area’s growing population but also based on the success of existing programs, said Adam Messer, president of the Dell Seton Medical Center.
“A lot of the capabilities that you see as part of this expansion are just ensuring that we can continue to grow in those areas and continue to serve Austin and the communities around it,” he said.
This latest expansion comes after Ascension Seton invested $310 million into the creation of the Dell Seton Medical Center, which opened in May 2017. The center serves an 11-county area throughout Central Texas, as well as operates as a teaching hospital in conjunction with Dell Med and UT Health Austin.
In the nearly six years since it opened its doors to the public, Dell Seton Medical Center has seen more than 615,000 patients, performed over 61,000 surgeries and has received more than 454,000 emergency room visits, per the release.
Messer said the initial design of the center was made to accommodate future expansion efforts. He said construction is set to begin this summer, with Dell Seton Medical Center anticipating serving its first patients in the expanded center come 2025.
“[The center] has allowed us to support patients who want to stay here where they live for care that they would normally or otherwise have had to leave to Dallas or Houston or to other cities for,” he said. “So we continue to fulfill those needs and assess our programs based on how we support our community and how we can make sure that people get the care they deserve, no matter how complex it is, right here in Austin.”