Methodist Children’s Hospital Tower in San Antonio Celebrates Grand Opening

SAN ANTONIO — A new seven-story tower opened on June 6 at the Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio after the official ribbon-cutting on May 20. The ribbon-cutting was led by seven former patients of the hospital. The expansion of the children’s center is part of a larger expansion of the main Methodist Hospital.

The project team for the expansion included THW Design in San Antonio as the architect on the project, with San Antonio-based Brandt Construction serving as the general contractor. The new tower includes 147 rooms, a dedicated children’s imaging department with a new state-of-the-art CT scanner, an ultrasound room and X-ray rooms.

The Methodist Hospital, owned by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), has added over 400,000 square feet to the Methodist Campus since the completion of the new Children’s Hospital addition. The expansion of the Children’s Hospital added 15 new emergency rooms, increasing the number from 25 to 40. The new tower also adds 18 beds in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a total of 94 beds. The recent addition makes the Methodist Children’s Hospital one of the largest NICU’s in the area.

“The growing demands for children’s services in San Antonio and South Texas really is what led to this,” said Robert Lenza, chief executive officer at the Children’s Hospital in a recent statement. “Our population continues to grow. A few years ago we realized we needed to build even more expansive rooms for our patients.”

The hospital was originally built in 1998, and was the first hospital in South Texas designed to meet the specific needs of children. Along those lines, the new expansion was designed with plenty of bright colors and windows to continue with this long tradition, with a plan to design the space to reflect the community the hospital serves.

“We built specific rooms so that families can stay together,” said Lenza in a recent statement. “We took into account the demographic of all types of families we have here in San Antonio.”