As one of the premier U.S. academic medical centers, UT Southwestern Medical Center provides care for more than 105,000 inpatients, 370,000 emergency room cases, and 3 million outpatients each year. Serving the nation’s fourth-largest metro area – the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex – the medical center is ranked by the 2020 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals report as one of the United States’ top 50 hospitals for 10 specialties, ranging from brain to heart care. Six specialties rank in the top 25.
When UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital first opened its doors in 2014, demand was immediately higher than anticipated, straining capacity from day one. To meet the increasing need for specialty care in North Texas and surrounding states, and to grow capacity for referrals from partner hospitals, UT Southwestern invested in a 12-story, third tower expansion and renovation of the Clements facility. The project kicked off in 2016, and the new wing opened in January 2021.
In addition to serving as the new clinical home for the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, the new tower consolidates acute inpatient care services into a single facility, fulfilling one part of the university’s vision. The new tower adds 292 beds, bringing Clements’ inpatient capacity to 752 total beds. An expanded emergency department increases ED capacity by more than 50 percent.
The new facility also creates space for several new specialty inpatient units, including neuro and surgical ICUs, a spine and orthopedics unit, an oncology unit, and an epilepsy monitoring unit that houses the latest research tools and improves patient safety with a central command center for real-time observation of brain activity or seizures.
Patient care is now supported by a new diagnostic imaging center and three angiography suites. Physicians also gained intraoperative MRI, Gamma Knife®, and high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) technologies to noninvasively treat tumors and other diseases, giving patients alternatives to radiation or surgery.
A new, four-story podium beneath the tower adds a 17-station apheresis unit, 19 new operating rooms, and three neuro-interventional suites featuring an iMRI, hybrid operating room, and robotic interventional radiology.
The Clements University Hospital Tower 3 expansion improves the quality of hospital care and services, while eliminating infrastructure, staffing and inventory redundancies to reduce the cost of care. With advanced neurology resources now on-site, UT Southwestern is poised to become one of the leading neuroscience providers in the United States.
To support new services, the hospital has increased patient care by 21,900 hours and added more than 250 new jobs. Clements expects to post as many as 750 new positions by the end of 2021, and projections provide for 1,000 new positions at full capacity.
Intentional design choices enable faster response to critical conditions, with care units adjacent to the relevant support areas. A new helipad is steps away from the angio suite, where patients receive time-sensitive, life-saving intervention. The neurointensive care unit sits on the same floor as the angio suite, enabling rapid transfer after emergency care.
Thoughtful design also means nurses and surgeons spend less time walking and more time with patients. Supply closets and computer stations are distributed throughout the units, making critical resources more accessible. Surgeons now save about 2.5 miles of travel distance each day, while two new garages provide 2,189 convenient parking spaces for visitors and staff.
The completed expansion positions Clements University Hospital for accelerating growth as the primary center for specialty care in the region. The expansion also will support additional referrals from other hospitals through Southwestern Health Resources, a clinically integrated network formed in partnership with Texas Health Resources.