El Paso Gaining Another Hospital

El Paso has 675,000 residents and growing. El Paso county commissioners believe the town is ready for another multi-service hospital.

A shuttered Eastside hospital has new ownership and a new plan to offer surgical services. University Medical Center of El Paso will purchase the former Legent Hospital with $55 million in revenue bonds approved by county commissioners last week. The facility will become UMC Surgical Hospital, offering inpatient and outpatient surgical services for elective procedures.

The 74,000-square-foot facility will have 40 inpatient beds, six operating room suites, two gastrointestinal suites, one cath lab, an imaging department and a lab. Twenty of the inpatient beds will be for telemetry care patients.

The facility will also have an emergency department that will run outside surgical hospital hours.

The $55 million in revenue bonds includes the facility purchase price of $44 million; $2.5 million in equipment leases; and $8.5 million in facility updates, asset maintenance, IT work and equipment replacement.