Project superintendent Christopher Wylie last week analyzes the project blueprint for the expansion of the post-operative recovery area at Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center. The expansion is expected to open in about five months, Presbyterian Santa Fe CEO John Adams said.
Project superintendent Christopher Wylie, left, shows director of engineering Jeff Claypool where the ventilation shafts will go during in the expansion of the post-operative recovery area at Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center on March 10, 2023.
Project superintendent Christopher Wylie last week analyzes the project blueprint for the expansion of the post-operative recovery area at Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center. The expansion is expected to open in about five months, Presbyterian Santa Fe CEO John Adams said.
Project superintendent Christopher Wylie, left, shows director of engineering Jeff Claypool where the ventilation shafts will go during in the expansion of the post-operative recovery area at Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center on March 10, 2023.
Nearing its five-year anniversary in October, Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center is evolving with the addition of a new 15-bay post-operative care unit as surgeries keep increasing at the south-side hospital.
Presbyterian started construction last week on the roughly 5,000-square-foot area adjacent to the existing 19-bay post-operative care unit just beyond the operating rooms.
The expansion is expected to open in about five months, Presbyterian Santa Fe CEO John Adams said.
The first floor was never built out, Adams said, awaiting the need for additional post-operative bays.
“We knew it was coming,” he said. “We had 4,000 surgeries and procedures in 2022. We are projecting close to 5,000 in 2023.”
The post-operative care unit is where patients emerge from anesthesia, vital signs are monitored and they are prepared for the next stop, either an inpatient bed or release as an outpatient, Adams said.
“Patients aren’t there for long,” said Adams, who joined Presbyterian Santa Fe in November after 11 years at Integris Health in Oklahoma City.
The $3.3 million project is just the latest addition at Presbyterian Santa Fe, which opened in October 2018.
A six-bed intensive care unit is expected to open midyear.
The urgent care center at the hospital was converted into an orthopedic surgery clinic.
Three cardiologists are now based in an 11,000-square-foot cardiology clinic that opened in March 2021 on the third floor of the hospital’s medical office wing. The other wing of the third floor remains a 34,000-square-foot empty shell, destined for up to 41 inpatient beds.
“The hospital was designed for growth,” Adams said. “We are at a point where we are evaluating when we can build out the third floor. There is not a date in play yet.”
In the meantime, Presbyterian Santa Fe awaits a new neighbor. Presbyterian Medical Services is in the closing stages of building its Santa Fe Family Health Center on the other side of the Beckner Road-Wellness Way traffic circle.
Presbyterian Santa Fe and Presbyterian Medical Services are not related companies, but the PMS health center is being built on the Presbyterian Santa Fe campus. PMS concentrates on behavioral health, dental and primary care.
“They have been a longstanding provider in the community,” Adams said. “We have had great collaborations with them over the years.”
