TRINITY – With the new professional office building or clinic now officially in use, officials with East Texas Medical Center are turning their attention toward the construction of a new patient wing at the hospital.
During Monday’s meeting of the Trinity Memorial Hospital District (TMHD) board of directors, ETMC-Trinity Administrator Warren Robicheaux said construction on the patient wing could begin as early as the end of this summer.
Like the new clinic, the patient wing would be built by ETMC but would be owned by the hospital district. The Tyler-based hospital group operates the local medical facility under a lease with TMHD.
Robicheaux said detailed plans for the new hospital wing should be ready in about a month for the hospital board to review. Once the plans are finalized, the hospital administrator said he expects ETMC will move fairly quickly to begin construction.
The patient wing will contain 15-18 patient rooms as well as support facilities including nursing stations. It will be built on the north side of the existing hospital.
When completed, most of the 22 patient rooms now used in the hospital will be converted into office space.
Unlike the current patient rooms, rooms in the new wing will come complete with showers and restrooms.
In his report, Robicheaux noted the new clinic went into use on Monday after the doctors who were housed in the old Main Street facility moved into the new offices.
He noted there are two new additions to the medical staff at the new clinic. Dr. David Mandel, an internal medicine specialist, has moved his practice from Corpus Christi and Trinity pediatrician Dr. Amol Deshpande has agreed to move his practice into the new facility.
“We’ve also increased the number of support staff in the clinic in anticipation of Dr. Deshpande’s arrival. He should move into the clinic sometime in early May,” Robicheaux said.
With the new physicians, the hospital administrator said the number of patients using the clinic should rise from the 1,000-1,100 monthly average recorded at the old clinic up to between 1,600-1,700 in the new facility.
A grand opening program is being planned for Wednesday, May 27, at the new clinic.
In related discussion, the hospital board agreed to return the old Main Street clinic building to JOBARCO Corp. if the corporation agreed to waive any liability claims against the hospital district.
JOBARCO donated the clinic building to TMHD about seven years ago but the deed transferring ownership was never formally filed in the Trinity County Clerk’s Office in Groveton.
Board President David Ward noted that while the district has copies of the deed, an original has not been located.
The district’s attorney, Alex Fuller of Austin, was on hand during the meeting and said it might be possible by obtaining affidavits to from those who signed the deed to clear up the title.
When he asked if the current officers of JOBARCO would sign a new deed, Ward reported he had learned they wanted the building back if TMHD no longer planned to use it.
The board agreed that since the corporation originally donated the clinic building to the district, if the issue of liability could be resolved they had no problem with returning it to JOBARCO.
In other business during the meeting, Fuller was questioned about a possible conflict of interest in having two members of the TMHD board also sit on the ETMC local governing board.
Fuller repeated his previous opinion that no such conflict exists. He noted he represents a number of hospitals and hospital districts across the state and in almost every case, the elected hospital board has one or two members on the governing board.
He noted by having one or two members of the elected board also sit on the local governing board, they can receive direct community input on how the hospital is operating. In addition, he noted the ETMC local governing board has “no purse string authority” and functions as an advisory body.