Baptist Offers Peek of New Healthcare Campus
By Jeremy Morrison
Next fall, Baptist Healthcare plans to open its new campus, currently being developed off of Brent Lane, taking shape to the side of Interstate-110, and it’s apparent that President and CEO Mark Faulkner is excited.
“From the chair I sit in, it’s hard for me to believe we’re less than a year away from moving into this campus,” Faulkner said Tuesday during a media preview of the site.
Baptists announced its intentions to relocate from its E Street campus in 2019, and efforts have been underway to prepare its new campus. Faulkner credited members across the development spectrum with keeping the project running smoothly during the pandemic-plagued interim.
“We have the A-team here,” he said. “Architects, project managers, construction and other partners — it’s kept us on track.”
The new Baptist campus has several different aspects to it. First, there’s the main hospital, more than 602,000 square foot facility spread out over 10 floors, which will house 264 beds, including areas dedicated to surgery, labor and delivery, and an ICU area. Next is the Bear Family Foundation Health Center, which has 178,000 square feet and six floors; in addition to exam rooms and areas for multispecialty services, the center also has a conference center. Finally, the new behavioral health unit will have 72 beds, including areas for inpatient care, outdoor play areas, a garden, and sensory rooms.
Brett Aldridge, senior vice president of strategy and development, described the experience of building a new hospital as “cool and incredible and a privilege to be a part of.” He added, “This is really a special time, not only for Baptist but for our community.”
Aldridge explained that Baptist’s new facilities will offer the community a state-of-art healthcare hub, but the project is about more than healthcare.
“It’s also about economic impact,” he said, noting how the new campus will stimulate business in the surrounding area and is already pumping money into the local economy during this development time.
“On any given day, there are about 800 construction workers on this site,” Aldridge pointed out.
According to Baptist, this new campus represents a $636 million investment in the local community. Since January of 2021, more than $16 million has been paid out in construction worker wages.
Insofar as the campus and the services to be offered to the community there, Vice President of Operations John Porter summed it up with a sentence: “Everything is bigger.”
This doesn’t just pertain to size, though the facilities are larger. Porter explained that Baptist officials were aware they were being presented the rare opportunity of developing a new facility from the ground up.
“We’re building a building,” Porter said. “This is our chance to get it right.”
Progress on Baptist’s new campus is evident from afar, plain to see as it rises against the horizon. Up close, it’s evident all the more. In the main hospital facility, interior painting is underway on the first six floors, while cabinetry is being installed on the first four, and tile work is ongoing on floors one through three. In the Bear Family Foundation Health Center, all the drywall is up on the first five floors, with cabinetry, tile and plumbing ongoing below. The building pad is complete for the behavioral health unit, and most of the site’s utilities have been installed.
Outside the building, the campus’s main square has been outfitted with sidewalks, light poles are being installed, and the last of two retention ponds is nearly complete. Before the campus opens next fall, a reflection area and walking garden will be added — this green space, Porter explained, is where patients and visitors may find a moment of peace or solitude and where the hospital’s many workers can prepare themselves for the mission that lies ahead.
“You put yourself together, you take a deep breath, and you head back into the battlefield and whatever you’re up against,” he said, in what could easily serve as a descriptive of the mission Baptist is currently on to bring a new healthcare hub to the area.
