Victory Healthcare Expands in Texas
BEAUMONT, Texas — The new 85,000-square-foot Victory Medical Center Beaumont opened to patients on May 14. The surgical hospital includes 56,000 square feet of hospital space and 29,000 square feet of medical office space, which features 17 private, inpatient suites, five oversized operating rooms and three special procedure rooms. The new surgical facility is a partnership between Victory Healthcare and Beaumont-area surgeons, and generates more than 100 jobs for the community. The facility specializes in complex spine procedures, as well as neurological, orthopedic, bariatric and general surgery. The Golden Triangle Emergency Physicians group will staff the 24-hour emergency services. Construction broke ground in late spring of 2012, and Houston-based Metzger Construction Company served as the construction manager.
“There was a demand in Beaumont for a surgical hospital and a great amount of interest in the community to have a level of care that Victory Healthcare provides,” said Kirsten Cavaness, Victory Healthcare’s director of construction. “[Victory Healthcare] really elevates the medical experience to much more of a hospitality level. We really pride ourselves in taking care of our patients with the highest level finishes in the hospital and state-of-the-art equipment.”
Those hospitality-inspired touches include natural daylight in the building’s 35-foot-tall atrium ceiling with a full-view glass curtain wall at the entry. Plus, the use of wood, rock and natural stone products throughout the design gives guests a more comfortable, less-clinical feel. Cavaness said there was a lot of attention to detail put into the touches, with custom-made headwall panels, wood floors throughout the corridors and a seamless design from department to department. LEED design elements were incorporated, and the facility is seeking LEED Silver certification.
The ORs are “magazine-worthy” in terms of design, Cavaness said. Not only are they oversized and include high-end equipment, but they also have natural-light windows that the surgeons are really excited about. “The natural light not only allows them to see better, but it also puts them in a better mood so they’re not in the OR all day without knowing what’s happening outside,” she said.
Early on, the construction team realized how excited the doctors were in terms of patient care and quickly realized that they needed to expand the footprint of the building, said Cavaness, while only delaying the project schedule by two weeks. “The original drawings showed five patient rooms, but we’re now at 17 rooms, so we added 12 rooms from the original design documents,” Cavaness said. “It was a very organic process once we recognized the eagerness and the access to these very stellar doctors that wanted to bring their patients to our facility.”
In order to achieve the project, Caveness said communication was key. They had biweekly job-site meetings and conference calls on the off-weeks. “We did a lot in a very little amount of time,” she said. “It was a monumental effort and I think the communication was key, as well as having the right consultants on the project. It was a collaborative effort and I think all good projects are.”
Victory Healthcare continues to expand in Texas, with the March announcement of a new location in Fort Worth, Texas. Slightly larger than the Beaumont facility, Victory Medical Center Fort Worth will feature an 85,000-square-foot medical facility and 50,000-square-foot medical office building on a 6.5-acre site. It will include 25 patient beds, four Intensive Care rooms, eight operating rooms and four special procedure rooms.