The Dallas-based Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children has chosen Frisco to build its first branch facility. Construction could begin as early as spring 2015 on an ambulatory care center on the northeast corner of Lebanon Road and the Dallas North Tollway, said TSRHC President and CEO Robert Walker.

The site is across from the Wade Park development, which just broke ground last week.

TSRHC's new approximately 100,0000-square-foot care center in Frisco will be an extension of the original Dallas campus and will initially be used for outpatient services and day surgeries for children with orthopedic issues, Walker said.

Walker said Scottish Rite chose Frisco primarily because about 25 percent of the hospital's patients are from areas north of Dallas.

"In trying to look at the future and look at how we can impact the community in this new era of health care reform and how we can better serve the families that we are here to take care of, we started looking at areas of the Metroplex that might could help achieve that," Walker said.

"We have a pocket [of patients around Frisco] that are referred here and of course hearing about and anticipating the future growth of that area, it appears that there is going to continue to be a great need in that area for the services we provide," Walker said.

Throughout the past year the board looked for land and settled on 40 acres in Frisco—enough for the campus to expand in the future if needed, as well as for any community endeavors the hospital might undertake.

The care center is projected to be completed sometime in 2016 and could employ about 75 to 100 people—a combination of new hires and current Dallas hospital employees.

"That number (of employees) could grow as activity level increases at the facility," Walker said.

The care center will be a point of access for patients to be seen for many of the same issues and treatments they would be seen for at the main campus, including day surgeries, but on an all-outpatient basis in the beginning, he said. Scottish Rite is also planning for a sports treatment program to occupy the facility.

Part of TSRHC's mission is to help diagnose, treat and research dyslexia in children, but those services will still only be offered at the main campus for now.

"This is more the surgical side of things, the orthopedic side of things, that we will be treating [in Frisco]," he said.

Walker said the fact that Frisco is a hub for youth sports played a role in the decision to build the center in the city, but that "it really is to serve our existing families in a more convenient way, and then also future families that would move into that area."

Walker said the TSRHC board has been discussing building a hospital branch for the last year and has been working with the city of Frisco and the Frisco Economic Development Corp.

"Certainly both have been very supportive of the move to [Frisco] and we've really appreciated that," he said.

Community involvement

Walker said Scottish Rite has always strived to involve the community with the hospital and will bring the same concept to Frisco.

"This is what we've talked to the city about, too, and the economic development folks there are a lot of different ways we are exploring right now how we can do that."

He said one community outreach effort includes Scottish Rite's plans to build a conference center in the new branch similar to the one on the main campus where interaction with universities takes place and various symposiums are held.

"We also invite the public to come in and use the facilities," he said. "It won't be as large as what we have on this campus but we'll have some community space, some community meeting rooms that we encourage the community to use and come and get involved with the facility."

He said the hospital campus will probably occupy about 10 acres, leaving the other 30 for uses that could help support the community, such as sports practice fields.

"We want to get really involved in the community and really be supportive of some community needs that exist there," Walker said.

Scottish Rite history

TSRHC is based in downtown Dallas at Oak Lawn Avenue and Maple Avenue, right off the Dallas North Tollway—about 23 miles from Frisco.

"It was a big consideration in making the move to out north," Walker said. "We are a facility that has been in the same location for almost 93 years."

The hospital's mission when it began was to treat polio, but throughout the years Scottish Rite has become known nationally and internationally as a pediatric orthopedic facility.

"We treat kids here with all kinds of orthopedic issues," Walker said. "First and foremost of what we do is the clinical care that we provide the children we serve. Every day we have roughly 300 children that come to the hospital for outpatient services, plus [in Dallas] we have inpatient services. We also do a lot of surgery being an orthopedic hospital."

The hospital also serves as a teaching facility and frequently interacts with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. In addition, Scottish Rite serves as a research facility for conditions related to those the hospital treats.

TSRHC draws patients from all across the state of Texas and some from across the country. The large majority of patients—about 70 percent—come from within a 75-80 mile-radius of the hospital. The other 30 percent come from the rest of state along with a few from states outside of Texas.

Scottish Rite, a nonprofit organization, is a Masonic facility and is governed by the Scottish Rite Masons of Texas, Walker said. The hospital until about two years ago did not charge patients for services. Some patients now pay for service to help offset operational costs, but he said the hospital is primarily funded through donations.