CAPACITY FOR CARE

Waiting to address these issues will not alleviate the current, urgent needs of UMC and EPCH. Plus, a CO will be less costly than a GO.

Capacity needs existed before now, but the increase in patients, services, and care has made the needs significantly worse today. Keep in mind that for the past two years, both hospitals have been handling the needs of El Paso County’s battle against COVID-19, including administering over 360,000 vaccines.

With the current environment of rapid interest rate increases and rising costs, waiting until a public vote can be held and adding the necessary lead-time for preparations, acquisitions, construction, and equipment purchases will cost the taxpayer tens of millions of dollars more.

University Medical Center and El Paso Children’s Hospital both need more beds. Examples of these needs are that UMC, on any given day, has more critical care patients than available beds. And EPCH has been highly successful in reducing the number of children having to leave El Paso for necessary care.

UMC and EPCH offer a number of very specialized, unique services in our community that have resulted in an increase in patients who choose to come to these hospitals to handle complex medical conditions. A few examples of this type of care include:

• Only Level 1 Trauma Center
• Only Level 1 Comprehensive Stroke Center by the JOINT Commission
• Level IV Maternal Care (Highest Level)
• Level IV Newborn Intensive Care Unit (Highest Level)
• Children’s Oncology Group

UMC is El Paso’s only safety-net hospital, meaning the hospital that provides care to ALL who come to it. Unlike for-profit hospitals, UMC has a responsibility in our County to care for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. EPCH plays a vital role in the healthcare safety-net by supporting programs that benefit the uninsured and underinsured pediatric population in El Paso County.

There are five distinct capacity needs that the District is hoping to remedy via a Certificate of Obligation. They are:

1. Expansion of Critical Care Beds.
Prior to the pandemic, UMC had less than seven critical care beds available on a daily basis. At the same time, UMC was trying to admit 11-14 new patients. During the pandemic, the situation was worse. In June and July 2022, there were many days in which UMC had more than 60 critical care patients waiting for a critical care bed.

2. Surgery Care expansion, both in the hospital and for outpatient care.
UMC needs an additional nine operating rooms. Three of those would be in the hospital, and six would be in an outpatient surgery center. These operating rooms will include:

• One operating room equipped with advanced imaging (a hybrid room).
• An operating room that is burn-surgery capable. Remember that all severe/major burn patients are currently sent out of town for treatment.
• An operating room for surgical robots.
• A new outpatient surgery center. This center facilitates the shifting of outpatient cases out of the main hospital. This surgical center will also help Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso recruit faculty and train physicians in outpatient specialty areas (like orthopedics, ENT, gynecology, spine, and urology).

3. A Neighborhood Health and Urgent Care Center in Central El Paso.
El Paso’s Central/Mission Valley area has the highest number of seniors of all of El Paso’s regions. Eighteen percent of this area’s residents are age 65 or older. This urgent care center would be one of few urgent care centers in the 79905, 79915, or 79907 zip codes.

4. Children’s Inpatient Surgery, and Emergency Department.
El Paso Children’s Hospital services the sickest children in El Paso. Children with complex or multiple health issues require a team of providers across specialties to treat their problems. EPCH has the most robust staff of pediatric specialists in El Paso.

• EPCH requires an additional 22 beds by 2025 and 26 beds by 2030 to keep up with population growth and demand increases. Part of this effort will include building out the 8th floor of the EPCH tower to provide an additional 26 beds.
• EPCH’s Emergency Department requires additional rooms to address demand and provide additional space for family and clinical support staff. The department has ten treatment rooms plus three Fast-Track rooms; it should have 22-24 treatment rooms to meet El Paso’s current needs.
• EPCH needs a hybrid operating room to address current demand for procedures that can diagnose and treat patients, without requiring surgery.

5. A Comprehensive Cancer Center.
El Paso is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. that does not have a comprehensive cancer center within a two-hour drive. Addressing this gap will be a multi-year effort to ensure high quality and coordinated cancer services are available in El Paso.

There is no doubt that a number of longer-term health consequences could affect El Pasoans, but the immediate consequences are:

1. Some Specialized care will continue to require care outside of El Paso. For example: burn patients (severe/major burns) will continue to be sent out of town for inpatient care, and cancer patients will either
   1. not receive the care they need (uninsured), or
   2. will continue to travel outside of the community for necessary care.
2. UMC will have limited capacity for patients needing critical care.
3. UMC may be unable to provide care to patients who are transferred or referred. Transfers usually come to UMC seeking a level of care not available in other hospitals. This could impact patients needing the most advance levels of treatment.
4. EPCH will have a limited capacity to provide inpatient care for additional children, beyond the current census.

If the bond is issued in October of 2022, then a taxpayer could expect to pay the following:

For the first ten years, 2023 to 2032:
$51.80 ($4.32 monthly) for every
$100,000 in property valuation

For 2033 to 2047 the rate drops to:
$26.00 ($2.17 monthly) for every
$100,000 in property valuation