New hospital planned at A&M University-San Antonio in partnership with University Health

An agreement to spend $500 million to create a new hospital on the South Side and education opportunities to match was signed Thursday by officials from Texas A&M University-San Antonio, Texas A&M Health and the University Health System. University Health officials last week closed on the purchase of 68 acres at the west entrance to the A&M campus as the future site of the 256-bed hospital slated to be finished by 2027. “Today’s partnership is a game changer for creating unlimited opportunities,” A&M-San Antonio President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said. “Together we are also going to be (ushering) a predominantly Latino and Latina student population to tangible career paths with a solid road map and real-world experience.”

The need for the facility was identified four or five years ago and reinforced by the pandemic, which highlighted the many dangers of its absence, said University Health President George Hernandez. “One of the things we found out during the pandemic was that we only had one hospital in one location. We had lots of clinics, but only one hospital, and it became very difficult to take care of our patients,” Hernandez said. “At the peak of the pandemic in 2021, we had over 174 patients in the hospital with COVID, and it basically almost shut us down.” Location was key. The health system has clinics on the South Side area but no hospital, but a search for a site proved unsatisfying until officials settled on the area next to the university, he said. “We couldn’t find the synergy until this property became available,” Hernandez said, adding he was glad they didn’t jump to buy something sooner. The project also will include a clinic or public health facility adjacent to the hospital, for which Bexar County officials approved $30 million. The university will construct a building on its campus to house a new College of Education and Public Health, for which the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has approved $45 million in funding.