{"id":497,"date":"2010-11-22T17:17:08","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T00:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/?p=497"},"modified":"2010-11-22T21:55:09","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T04:55:09","slug":"lakeway-regional-medical-center-taking-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/lakeway-regional-medical-center-taking-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeway Regional Medical Center Taking Shape"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For years we’ve watched the 50-acre site <\/a>on Highway 620 at Flint Rock Trace\u00a0near Lakeway<\/a> with interest.\u00a0 First there were signs with the announcement of a new hospital on it.\u00a0 Then dirt began to move.\u00a0 Then dirt stopped moving.\u00a0 Then the site sat still.\u00a0 And then it sat still some more.\u00a0 Then rumors swirled that the financing for the project fell through.\u00a0 (Rumors that proved to be true.)<\/p>\n

Then more news (that financing had been secured.)\u00a0 And better yet, that it was government-backed financing.\u00a0 And now here we are on the eve of Thanksgiving 2010 and construction of an over one million square foot medical complex is in full swing!\u00a0<\/p>\n

That’s right.\u00a0 I said over one million square feet; 1,100,000 when fully-phased to be precise.\u00a0 To give you an idea of the scale, that’s very close to the\u00a0size of the nearby Hill Country Galleria<\/a>.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With\u00a0a 170-bed hospital at its core, the Lakeway Regional Medical Center\u00a0site also includes two medical office buildings, parking garages, a day care center, an extended-stay hotel, and a retail center with shops and restaurants.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hospital will be operated by a group\u00a0of doctors who have, collectively, invested $40 million of their own money in the construction of the $200 million+ project.\u00a0 According to the developers, as a physician-operated hospital, the doctors will have much more control over patient care and how the hospital is run than they would ever have in a traditionally-managed, corporate-run hospital.<\/p>\n

The hospital is scheduled to have a\u00a0Level 1 Trauma Center <\/a>(the highest level of trauma care in the nation.)\u00a0 As a point of reference, only Brackenridge<\/a> and Dell Children’s Medical Center<\/a> offer Level 1 Trauma centers in the Austin-area.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Otherwise, as it was pointed out to me in a recent presentation\u00a0that I attended hosted by the hospital developers, a Level 1 trauma \"\"<\/a>center\u00a0is a 45-minute helicopter ride from here.<\/p>\n

As for the economic impact to the area, the hospital piece alone will initially employ nearly 1,500 people.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Likewise, from ancillary services\u00a0like pharmacies to home health care to linen suppliers, I am told that each bed in a hospital like this has the potential to add\u00a020 jobs to the local economy.\u00a0 That’s\u00a0over 3,000 new jobs created.\u00a0 Moreover, as it stands, over half of the doctors slated to come to the new hospital are coming from out of the Austin area.\u00a0 These doctors and their staffs will likely see virtue in living near the complex.\u00a0 This means real estate sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0magnitude\u00a0of the financial impact the hospital\u00a0could have on the area is mind-boggling.\u00a0 Will it add to an already difficult traffic situation?\u00a0 Almost certainly.\u00a0 Will it add to the development and re-development of the surrounding area?\u00a0 Probably so.\u00a0 But the reality is that population in this area of Austin is predicted to double in the next 10 years.\u00a0 That kind of population must have quality medical care, both emergency and non-critical, in the area.\u00a0 The fact that a first-class, physician-managed facility might just be the offering is a real coup for area residents\u00a0current and\u00a0future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years we’ve watched the 50-acre site on Highway 620 at Flint Rock Trace\u00a0near Lakeway with interest.\u00a0 First there were signs with the announcement of a new hospital on it.\u00a0 Then dirt began to move.\u00a0 Then dirt stopped moving.\u00a0 Then the site sat still.\u00a0 And then it sat still some more.\u00a0 Then rumors swirled that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,128,5,35],"tags":[133,130,129,131,132],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-austin-businesses","category-austin-healthcare","category-austin-texas-homes","category-real-estate-sales","tag-austin-emergency-rooms","tag-austin-healthcare-2","tag-austin-hospitals","tag-lakeway-hospital","tag-lakeway-regional-medical-center"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neighborhoods-in-austin.com\/tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}