CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Beeville leaders gave Bee County commissioners an update on the hospital’s services, patient volumes and quality ratings, and described a planned repair of the hospital’s central utility plant that hospital staff estimate will cost about $1,518,000.
The presentation, delivered during the court’s July 28 special meeting, reviewed emergency department volumes, top diagnoses and new clinical capacities. Hospital officials said the site averages about 1,700 emergency department visits a month, a roughly 7% admission rate, an average inpatient stay of about 3.3 days and monthly surgical and endoscopy volumes. Officials also noted telehealth services (including teleneurology and telecardiology), a recently installed Da Vinci Xi robotic surgical system and accreditations including a Level 4 trauma designation and an “A” safety grade.
The nut graf: hospital leaders told the court the facility is maintaining quality and expanding local services while seeking county coordination on a central-plant structural repair that hospital staff say is needed to protect critical utilities and equipment.
Hospital facilities manager Michelle Robbins described concrete deterioration and corrosion in the hospital’s basement tunnel and central utility-plant area. Robbins said temporary shoring was in place but that steam, humidity and aging conduits have caused continued deterioration around utilities including chilled-water piping, electrical conduits, steam and gas lines. She said replacement of failed concrete and some piping and conduit sections will require moving boilers, removing the existing pad, carrying out utility repairs and repouring a new pad to support the boilers.
CHRISTUS staff provided a preliminary budget figure of $1,518,000 for the central plant foundation project. Hospital representatives asked county staff to work with them to prepare a formal request and move the project toward procurement; no roll-call appropriation was recorded in the meeting minutes or on the audio record.
Hospital leadership also reviewed quality metrics: officials said the hospital scored at or near maximum points on system quality indices for sepsis and other measures, reported no hospital-acquired infections in more than two years and cited a four-star CMS rating and several national recognitions. Hospital leaders credited telehealth services with enabling rapid stroke and critical-care evaluations and noted recent staff engagement survey results showing above-average scores.
Ending: Commissioners thanked hospital leaders for the presentation and asked county staff to coordinate next steps; hospital staff said they would provide detailed project paperwork and work with county procurement and facilities staff to bring a formal request back to a future court session.