EDINBURG — South Texas Health System has officially opened its long-awaited five-story, $100 million patient tower heavily touted as a medical facility designed to increase access to health care in the Rio Grande Valley.
In celebration of the tower’s completion, STHS held a grand opening ceremony Thursday morning with Marc Miller, president and CEO of Universal Health Services, STHS’s parent company. City and state officials also joined hospital staff at the main entrance of STHS Edinburg for the event.
The completion of the project comes about a month after the first two floors, the intensive care unit and comprehensive imaging center were opened to the public on Aug 8. The project first began in the fall of 2020.
The tower’s third and fourth floors are dedicated to the inpatient rehabilitation and adult inpatient nursing units.
The tower includes 59 new adult beds which raised the total bed count in the hospital to 202. The expansion also includes more shell space that provides room for an additional 55 beds to meet potential growth needs.
For Miller, the expansion is the beginning of providing Valley residents with more healthcare opportunities.
“The goal down here has always been to continue to invest in this community and try to improve health care for all of our patients,” Miller said, adding that since the hospital’s initial opening in 1997 it has continued to grow to meet the needs of the community.
“I don’t know if it was just the pandemic highlighting the need, I think the need has been here because of the growth,” he added. “There has been so much growth in the Rio Grande Valley that healthcare facilities needed to step up and figure out how to better serve the patients.”
Miller went on to say that overall growth in the region also creates the demand for more access, and inpatient and outpatient functions for STHS Edinburg will be a big part of providing that access.
“Primarily what this does is just increase access,” Miller said.
The new tower has created over 100 new jobs at South Texas Health System, STHS Edinburg CEO Lance Ames said.
Ames specifically highlighted the rehabilitation unit, which has 28 rooms and includes a loft-like atmosphere that gives patients the ability to do everyday things.
