News see more »

With the base of a water tower outlined against the Texas sky and crews laying utility lines towards the proposed site for the new Lake of the Hills Regional Medical Center on Hwy 71 west of Hwy 281, a slight detour in plans was announced Monday by Scott & White officials.

“We are moving forward with the plan and commitment to build a regional medical campus with a hospital and physician building,” said Peter Brumleve, Scott & White Chief Strategy Officer. “The City of Marble Falls is making progress on their commitment to bring water and utilities to the project location, and we need to keep up the pace so we will be ready.”

But, the location of the new medical campus will no longer be in what is referred to as the Crossroads Development. Negotiations broke down on Friday between Scott & White and the Crossroads developers regarding the purchase of 22 acres adjacent to the proposed 18 acre hospital site.

In March 2009, Scott & White put money into escrow to purchase the 22 acres that the developer agreed to improve with roads, street lights and other infrastructure. “It was relatively apparent after a few months that construction of the improvements was not underway,” explained Brumleve.

The developers and Scott & White had been negotiating since September to amend the original contract to reduce the purchase price in view of the developer’s inability to fund the infrastructure improvements called for in the purchase contract, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement.

Brumleve said Scott & White started looking for a new site on Monday in the “same geographic area” to take advantage of the water tower and utility lines the City of Marble Falls has already built. Although the exact site of the medical complex may change, Brumleve said the community still needs and wants a regional medical center and Scott & White still wants to build and operate it.

Existing plans for the medical complex include construction of a building for physicians and a new hospital with 75-100 beds and more than 250,000 square feet of space. The design of the hospital allows for adding space and beds as future needs occur. The list of services in the plan include a 24- hour emergency department, heart catheterization labs, cardiac rehabilitation, operating rooms, maternity services suites, endoscope procedure suites, cancer services, and a variety of other specialty services, all supported by comprehensive state-of-the-art imaging technology and other diagnostic services. “There has been a great investment of time and expense already on the part of Scott & White. We have taken this action so we will be ready to start construction of the first building when the city’s utility construction and other needed improvements are complete. It is unfortunate that we could not make this deal work, but we are confident we will be able to find property necessary to build the medical center,” said Brumleve.

The City of Marble Falls began construction of water and utility service to the planned medical complex in May 2009. When the utility line is completed, construction is scheduled to begin on the first building in 90 days. Selecting a new site for the hospital campus will not delay the scheduled May 31, 2010 merger of the Llano Memorial Healthcare System with Scott & White. Scott & White Healthcare is a not-for-profit health care system established in 1897. Scott & White is the principal clinical teaching facility affiliated with the Texas A&M College of Medicine, with a Temple campus that includes a four-year medical curriculum. Along with its 636-bed flagship hospital and clinic facility in Temple, Scott & White includes nine other hospitals or hospital partners, and more than 60 clinic locations throughout Central Texas. With more than 800 physicians and scientists, Scott & White has become one of the nation’s largest multi-specialty group practice systems.