Plumbing 
Melissa Federspill
Staff Writer
In a few weeks, Uvalde Memorial Hospital will break ground on a new $83.5 million facility.
The new two-story structure will be approximately 170,000 square feet, with roughly the same number of patient beds as the current hospital, according to UMH chief executive officer Tom Nordwick.
Nordwick said that the current hospital was built in the 1970s, and has small patient rooms with small bathrooms, built before the passage of the American with Disabilities Act, back when there was a crunch for space in an effort to improve efficiency.
“As technology has expanded and the need for having the technology in the rooms has expanded – the rooms are just too small,” Nordwick said.
“Health care is evolving, and Uvalde Memorial Hospital is evolving to meet the needs of the community,” said Samantha Vonderschmidt, marketing coordinator for Uvalde Memorial Hospital.
In a recent interview, Vonderschmidt and Nordwick discussed the replacement project that is designed to provide improved health care to residents of Uvalde, Kinney, Zavala and Edwards counties.
Another difference between the current hospital and the planned hospital is that in the current hospital, administration services are housed in former patient rooms that are approximately 170 square feet.
The new hospital will have offices built for the non-clinical staff, in areas designed for that use, in 70-80 square foot manner.
“We wanted to spend the money in clinical care areas so that our patients are served well,” said Nordwick.
He also said the new hospital will be more patient centric, with a focus on making the patient encounter as convenient for the patient as possible.
The hospital has chosen award-winning architectural firm Perkins and Will to design the hospital. The firm’s featured work includes The Johns Hopkins Hospital, American Hospital Dubai, and Baptist Health Hospital on Miami Beach.
As part of the two-story design, Perkins and Will has focused on the property the hospital owns located to the southwest.
Nordwick says the design ensures that all of the in-patient rooms face the south so that patients can look out into the green space.
He said as much as possible, they are designing to keep an unobstructed picturesque countryside view for patients.
As part of the local capital campaign, the hospital will be engaging an art design firm and aims to utilize the works of local artists, Nordwick said.
The first floor of the hospital will house all out-patient rooms, and in-patient rooms will be on the second floor.
Other services in the new hospital include an emergency department, a multi-specialty clinic; physical, speech, and operational therapy; radiology, urgent care, wound care rehabilitation, an intensive care unit, a 25-bed medical surgical inpatient unit; observation obstetrics, C-section, central sterile, a PACU, pre-op, and surgical services; and facility management.
The hospital will also have a cardiac catheterization lab, which will be a new service offered at Uvalde Memorial Hospital, along with other peripheral vascular services, such as a cardiac rehab program.
Nordwick said in keeping with the hospital’s strategic plan of improved community health, the new hospital will have community education rooms for holding other educational offerings, something that the hospital has not been able to do in the past, due to space limitations.
Being that overall community health is part of the hospital’s outreach, Nordwick said they talked with the city of Uvalde early in the development plans about creating walking paths, trails, additional parking, and ball fields on some of the hospital-owned property to encourage fitness and health.
Funding
Uvalde Memorial Hospital is a 501c3 not for profit organization, whose governing body is the Uvalde County Hospital Authority. Uvalde Memorial Hospital sought and was awarded funding from the USDA Rural development office in the amount of $58.5 million direct funding and a guaranteed loan of $16.5 million.
The hospital intends to issue a series of 40-year revenue bonds in the amount of $75 million.
Frost Bank, First State Bank of Uvalde, and Broadway Bank will take responsibility of ownership of the bonds during the construction phase of the project. When the project is over and completed, the USDA will assume responsibility of $58.5 million of the bonds, and a second company, Compeer, will take responsibility for $16.5 and relieve the banks of their responibility. The remaining $8.5 million will be the hospital’s responsibility.
Nordwick said that the bonds are backed by the hospital’s future revenues and there is no debt or obligation to the community for the bonds that are issued.
The board of directors met Tuesday, June 25 at 6 p.m. at Uvalde Memorial Hospital to consider the passage of the bonds.
Timeline
Groundbreaking is set for Aug. 1. Nordwick said construction should take approximately 18 months. They will move patients into the new facility when it is complete and then demolish the old hospital, which will take approximately six months.
The new hospital will use the current hospital site for future parking. Nordwick also said they intend to move the current systems that heat and cool and existing emergency power units to the new hospital.
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Architectural rendering of the Uvalde Memorial Hospital’s planned two-story, 170,000-square foot facility. The hospital will break ground on the project on Aug. 1.
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