por
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | May 13, 2022
Reeves County Hospital is building and moving to a new $114 million facility. (Photo courtesy of Reeves County Hospital)
A West Texas hospital is doubling its size with the opening of a new $114 million facility that it will relocate to in just a few weeks.
Reeves County Hospital in Pecos plans to repurpose its current site, which is over 40 years old and has WiFi and internet connectivity problems due to being made from cinder block. Part of the 87,000 square-foot building will be used for housing in Reeves County, and the hospital may lease part of it.
The new two-story facility is 140,000 square feet and located on seven acres. Reeves initially owned part of the land and bought the rest from Pecos Economic Development Corporation. While some equipment will be brought over from the original hospital, new equipment will be installed as well, including for medical imaging,
according to local news outlet, Odessa American.
“We’ll have a brand-new, in-house MR machine, a brand-new CT machine and a new radiology machine. We’ll have women’s imaging with a new mammography machine, bone density and ultrasound,” said Reeves County Hospital chief executive officer Brenda McKinney in a statement. In addition to the new medical imaging equipment, a new hyperbaric chamber for healing wounds with oxygen will be installed. Reeves is also bringing over its dialysis unit.
The hospital currently employs 270 staff members, and with part-time and as-needed employees, there are at least 25 more. Due to a lack of resources, the hospital will only be able to train a few staff members at a time, while others tend to patients at the current site. Some may even have to sacrifice part of their days off to train on the equipment. Training is expected to take a couple of months.
Construction is being funded with oil and gas proceeds, sales tax and prudent spending, according to McKinney. The organization receives half a cent of the sales tax from the oil and gas industry in Reeves County. When planning for the new facility, it had about 60% to 70% of the funding required. It hoped in the beginning that it would be able to pay at least half of the sum in cash. Instead, it saved up enough to pay the full total. This includes equipment and furnishings. “Oil and gas continued to do well in Reeves County and the work in Reeves County. Any extra that we would get from sales tax and stuff, we tried to put it all away so that we could go ahead and pay for every bit of it,” said McKinney.
She adds that the hospital will make sure the community knows it was able to fund construction for the new facility on its own. “This isn’t costing the taxpayers any additional money. It will be paid for when the project’s complete.”
The architects for the new facility are Perkins and Will, and Robins & Motion are managing construction.
Health Care Relocation is planning the logistics of moving staff and equipment. An open-house to show the community the new facility has not been scheduled but is expected to happen sometime in the first week of June.
The hospital is aiming for an opening in mid-June.
