GRMC breaks ground on its future

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
Cindy Aguirre

New hospital building made possible thanks to state funding
(Seguin) — GRMC is again growing its capacity to offer quality medical care to the community.

The hospital is further expanding its footprint in Seguin after its recent groundbreaking for its newest building. The new Laurel Medical Office Building is a 27,000 square foot facility, that’s being built next to its Willow building on Highway 90A. The Laurel building will double the amount of space available to the primary care providers who are part of the medical group at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center.

Elaine Bennett, chief executive officer of the Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation, is said to have been instrumental in seeking the funding for this project. Robert Haynes, CEO of Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, applauds Bennett’s persistence and tenacity of securing these funds up in Austin. GRMC, which is the only city-county owned hospital left in the state of Texas,

sought and received $10 million as part of the budget approved during the last legislative session. Bennett says she appreciates the praise, but it was really the leadership and support from the offices of State Representative John Kuempel, and Dean of the Texas Senate, Senator Judith Zaffirini, that helped make all of this happen. She says after hearing about a surplus in the state’s budget, Bennett knew it was time to roll up her sleeves. She says it’s always been her passion to help keep GRMC an independent award-winning community hospital.

“What I did was just figure out the path. When you are trying to tell a story – that’s how I felt – Seguin has a great story and I think we deserve some of the taxpayer money that was going to be handed out so if it weren’t us, it is going to be somebody. Why not us?” said Bennett.

Zaffirini says GRMC’s overall uniqueness of not being supported by a hospital tax district made it the right candidate for the state funding. {grmcnew3} out: would not have succeeded

“We have many hospitals that are corporate hospitals or for-profit hospitals or part of a hospital district so they either have a strong source of funding that is taxed based or not. This is a different institution because it is city and county owned and it reached out to the state for collaboration and for support and it’s highly unusual – highly unusual to get this kind of funding and that is why Elaine Bennett is so grateful because we told her from the beginning that it would be so difficult and to be perfectly frank with you, neither Representative Kuempel nor I thought that it was likely to succeed. We knew that we would do our best to get it done. We made our best effort. We didn’t give up, but we were very frank, and we said we are not likely to succeed and then, guess what? We did and it was a matter of persistence and what helped is his effectiveness in the House of Representatives and then on the Senate side, the fact that both Senator Campbell and I are on the finance committee made a difference and her being a Dr. gives her extra clout when it comes to healthcare, and it shows bipartisan support. Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan, they supported the effort as did the committee chairs. If anyone of them did not support our effort, we would not have succeeded,” said Zaffirini.

Representative Kuempel says working together with Senator Zaffirini once again proved to be beneficial to this community.

“We’ve got to understand that this woman’s steadfast dedication to support her communities, of her constituents is unmatched in the Texas Senate and to have a partner like her that I have had in my tenure for the last 14 years is just a warm feeling knowing that I can walk across the hall and say I need help and guess what, I get help,’ said Kuempel.

Haynes says the new Laurel Building will not only provide greater access to laboratory and imaging services, but it will provide for continued growth in the community’s healthcare.

“It consists of 14 offices for family practioners and mid-level practioners so you multiply that to the number of patients they can see. There are thousands of patients that could be walking in that building throughout a period of a month that are seeing their family doctor,” said Haynes.

Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen says the city is especially thrilled about this expanded project for the local hospital. She says it’s a win for not only the city but the entire region.

“Every time something improves in Seguin, Texas and our healthcare improves, it only shows us what we can do and how we can help our region because we are a region and so anything more that we can pull here, anything more we can tell Seguin and the surrounding community what we have and what we have available only increases what we have in the availably of getting even more things that people want,” said Dodgen.

Haynes says the construction of the new medical building makes way for continued growth and a healthier community.

“What this means is it’s very very basic if you think about it. Healthcare is a one-on-one thing between a patient and a physician, and you need a place for the physician to practice. That’s what this is. It’s a state-of-the-art building where physicians will be practicing medicine touching thousands of lives for many years to come and so this absolutely makes a difference for the community,” said Haynes.

Community members gathered with state leaders and hospital officials to break ground on the new building on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

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