CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Dr. Hector P. Garcia Health Center is going to be expanded.
The facility opened in 2017, as many of the services at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital-Memorial were being transferred to the health system’s Shoreline campus, and 5 years later, it’s growing because of overwhelming demand.
The Garcia Health Center offers everything from a pharmacy to a quick-care clinic, and it's all inside a 43,000 sq. ft. facility that now needs to be bigger.
There are still several questions to be answered, such as how big should the expansion be? And whether it should be paid through a bond or by some other financial arrangement.
"The hospital district has ample reserves,” Nueces County Hospital District CEO Jonny Hipp. “It could be that we finance it out of our own reserves, or, we do external finances like bonds or certificates of obligation, but that's way down the road right now. The primary thing to figure out now is how much additional clinic space do we need, and how could that be best fit into the property."
The hospital district has already contracted with an architect.
And speaking of the old CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital-Memorial, it was being demolished by work crews this week.
The exterior of the building has been stripped away, and crews are eventually going to come in with a wrecking ball and knock the rest of it down.
The hospital opened in 1944, but officials felt the building had served its purpose and that it was time for demolition.
Hipp believes that eventually a new healthcare facility will go in here.
"The most recent discussion entailed having an outpatient mental-health facilities on that campus,” he said. “We're still doing a needs assessment of what's needed."
The demolition is expected to be completed by next fall.