Wayne Voss was employee No. 1 at Houston Methodist West Hospital. Voss led Houston Methodist's expansion into Katy four years ago as part of the team that designed the facility from the ground up. He has seen a lot of changes since doors opened along I-10 in December 2010 and already is planning the facility's expansion to keep up with the growth in the Katy area and the increased need for heath care services.

What was it like to be part of a team opening a new hospital?

The process has been exciting. Not a lot of people get to do something like that. When I walk around the hospital now, I can still remember wearing hard hats years ago and giving tours about what would eventually be here. To sit back after four years and see how it came together and that it's still growing, it's something special.

What have been the biggest changes at the hospital in recent years?

The biggest challenge is to keep up with the growth here in Katy, and we have grown to try and match it. We had 336 employees when we first opened, and now we have more than 1,200 employees. We started with about 36 beds and now our building shell is completely built out, and we are at full capacity with 193 beds. That was something we had planned to do sometime in 2017, but the need to expand already was there, and we got there three years early.

Are there any plans to expand Houston Methodist West Hospital?

We have enough land here to keep getting bigger. That was part of the reason why we chose this land for the hospital site—there was room for us to grow. There are 86 acres, and we have developed approximately 42 acres. We don't have any plans right now about what we're going to do with the 30 acres behind the hospital, but we're working with architects and planners on expansion. It's sort of a Phase 2–building up the east tower. There, we'll be adding about 120 beds to what we already have here. If everything goes as planned, construction will probably start at the end of next year.