Scott & White and Cedar Park Regional Medical Center adding space and services near Toll 183A

In the next year, Cedar Park's health care offerings will expand by at least 123,000 square feet as Cedar Park Regional Medical Center and Scott & White Healthcare roll out an array of new services and facilities.

Both major health care providers have new office buildings under construction along Whitestone Boulevard and Toll 183A. In August, CPRMC and Jimmy Jacobs Construction broke ground on a four-story, 85,000-square-foot medical office building next to an existing medical office building on Medical Parkway. In addition, Scott & White is building a 38,000-square-foot primary care facility that will include speciality care services and a physical therapy clinic. The new building is under construction immediately adjacent to the group's emergency center on Whitestone Boulevard that opened in February.

Ernie Bovio, CEO of Scott & White Healthcare's Round Rock region, said patient requests and a swelling population compelled the Temple-based health care provider to expand in Cedar Park.

"We don't want to ask our patients to travel farther than what's necessary. The growth in Cedar Park, Leander and the western part of the county continues in the projections we're seeing," Bovio said. "Looking at the number of patients traveling from that area to the Round Rock specialty clinic or hospital, we can see that traffic volume. It's continuing to grow, and we want to be able to move out to Cedar Park and create a substantial hub for services."

The medical hub

In May, the new Scott & White clinic will replace and the existing primary care facility on Quest Boulevard, a building the company will eventually sell, Bovio said. The new clinic will allow Scott & White to hire six additional family practice doctors and offer specialty services including cardiology; gastroenterology; OB/GYN; ear, nose and throat; urology; orthopedics; podiatry; and dermatology.

"A pretty good complement of special services will be available in that facility. It's also going to have a physical therapy and rehabilitation gym," he said. "Once it's fully occupied, there will be 12 primary care physicians, six or seven specialists and then up to eight physical therapists in the rehab center. We'll probably have a total of 80 employees in the facility."

A push for cardiology in Cedar Park

Cardiology, along with OB/GYN and orthopedic services, is in high demand in Cedar Park and Leander, Bovio said. Cardiology is also part of the focus in the expansion at CPRMC, which sees about six or eight patients suffering from heart attacks each month, hospital CEO Brad Holland said. Approximately 20 percent of patients in the emergency room are there because of chest pain, he said. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statistics Unit, heart disease causes 19 percent of deaths annually in Leander and Cedar Park, second only to cancer.

In March, CPRMC opened its interventional cardiology department following a five-year moratorium on the practice outlined in the hospital's contract with its partner, Seton Healthcare. During the procedure, the cardiologist works in either heart or peripheral arteries to clear blockages using catheters, balloons and stents.

"We put a tube in the artery—usually it's in the wrist, but sometimes it's in the groin—and that acts as our doorway to get equipment into the body. Through that we pass our catheters up around and into the heart," said Dr. Geoffery Crimmins, who practices at CPRMC. "The most common way that somebody ends up on this table is that they had symptoms as an outpatient, and either their primary care doctor or a cardiologist orders a stress test and it comes back abnormal."

Additions at CPRMC

CPRMC plans to further expand its cardiology department this fall, Holland said, in addition to constructing its 10th remote clinic, which will be located at the intersection of Anderson Mill Road and RM 620. The office building under construction near the hospital will be ready for medical tenants by next summer, he said. Hospital officials said they plan to unveil more expanded services by the end of the year.

"We started offering 24-hour, seven-days-a-week neurology and stroke care at the beginning of the year, and in March we started offering interventional cardiology services," Holland said. "By the end of year, we hope to receive a trauma designation, and we will announce a new service line that I can't disclose at this point."

The hospital's fourth floor will remain vacant for now, Holland said.

"It will be a $10 million project once we start, but that's not in the works right now. We have many growth plans that are just now coming to fruition," he said. "Austin's growth dynamic and Cedar Park's growth projections allow us to go along with the expanding population. As Austin and Cedar Park grow, we are able to grow with it."