The Permian Regional Medical Center’s board of directors last week approved plans for a new facility to replace the existing hospital built in 1960-61. 

     The board voted unanimously in approving the plans and is expected to call for an election in May at their board meeting in February.

     If approved by the voters in May work on the $59,400,000 project would last around three and a half years as construction would occur in phases in order to accommodate the demolition of sections of the old hospital and build anew while hospital services continue operating.

     The new hospital would encompass new physicians’ clinics, an enlarged Wellness Center, and other departments compartmentalized for greater efficiency, while maintaining quality care. All total the project would take in nearly 200,000-square-feet, and would still be attached to Permian Residential Care Center, the nursing home.

     With the hospital now budgeting between $700,000 to $800,000 a year now for repairs, hospital officials believe it’s time to rethink spending that much annually versus building a new, more modern and state-of-the art facility.

     The decision culminated a year-long study on the feasibility of replacing the aging hospital, which continues to see repair and replacement costs increasing as occurred last month when two boilers went down suddenly and emergency repairs cost around $20,000.

     “We suddenly didn’t have any hot water one morning and so we had to get repairmen out in a hurry and do overtime in getting the repairs done, which weren’t cheap,” PRMC CEO Russell Tippin said of the situation. The latest crisis was just a sampling of how the hospital is constantly having emergencies with equipment failures and officials are faced with paying for repairs on equipment and utilities that in many cases involve decades-old apparatuses. While the hospital has been greatly cared for over the years, officials say it’s just normal to see pipes, fixtures, roofs and machinery wear out.

     The hospital’s telephone system crashed early last year causing a major disruption in communications and necessitating an emergency installation of new lines and phones after the old system was deemed too dilapidated to fix. The new system cost over $100,000, but anticipating a possible new scenario the new system was installed in a manner that could moved.

     The hospital currently has 34 rooftop air conditioners, which struggle to cool the three floors during hot summers as cooling and heating the facility, which has seen several add-ons over the years, is inconsistent at best. 

     Perhaps one of the more dire situations continues to be the plumbing that oftentimes leaks from above on one floor down into either patient rooms or offices, again forcing emergency repairs. One staffer told of having her office flooded over a weekend from a leak above ruining her desk, fixtures and carpet that had just been installed. Because of the antiquated pipes and drains, much of which is original when the facility was built, there are rooms sometimes that don’t have hot water until repairs are made. Tippin said it’s not  uncommon for the hospital to spend $50,000 to $100,000 or more some months on repairs.

     “The thing is we’re making these repairs on existing equipment that, in all likelihood is going to continue to fail as old plumbing often does,” Tippin said. “It’s like putting your finger in a hole in the dam and hoping nothing else goes wrong.”

     Tippin said he truly believes that it’s time for local residents to decide if they want us to continually put more and more money into the maintenance and upkeep of the hospital or build a new one that doesn’t have systematic failures, not to mention be much more energy efficient and modern for our residents.

     Tippin said the hospital electric bill each month averages around $25,000 to $40,000 and he believes a new facility would greatly reduce this number. “An energy-efficient facility would probably reduce this number greatly. It’s just hard to conserve when you’re struggling to keep something this large cool or warm,” he said.

     Plans call for a one-level facility that is more user-friendly and energy efficient and a major attraction to the community by patients and users from other towns. 

If the election passes the board would make a final determination on financing but appears to be leaning toward a 25 or 30-year bond with an option for early pay-off. Doug Witt with Southwest Securities went over some of the particulars of arranging for financing, but said bond interest rates have been at historic lows, although adding that world events, whether good or bad, could impact the percentage levels. He discussed the local tax base and how it can not only affect the hospital’s rating, but the interest rates that possible lenders would offer.

He recommended taking a conservative approach to offset any future upheavals related to paying off debt. He said an increase of eight cents to the hospital’s ad valorem taxes would cost the average homeowner owning a $100,000 home about $100 a year.

     “The timing is good,” Witt said about getting good interest rates, which he said have been from 3.9 to 4.6 percent, near record lows.

     Tippin said the word is out in the community about a possible bond issue for a new hospital and so far he hasn’t heard any negative comments. “Having to budget $700,000 a year just for repairs just doesn’t seem like a good approach to spending taxpayers’ money. It seems more prudent to spending that money on a new facility than putting it into a 50-year-old hospital.”

     “The hospital board knows it’s all up to the community. They (the board) did their homework in studying the issue and now want to lay it all out for taxpayers to decide the issue. That’s the way it should be.”

To view additional photos of the new Permian Regional Medical Center, click here.