(Seguin) — Guadalupe County is applauding not only its partnership but the overall efforts of the state’s only city, county owned hospital in the state of Texas. Guadalupe Regional Medical Center officials this week visited with members of the commissioners court announcing new business ventures and it’s own financial health.
Robert Haynes, chief executive officer for GRMC, says the operation continues to grow strong. He says this allows the hospital to not only remain competitive but allows it to move forward with its vision.
“Right now, we are financially stable but we are in healthcare and healthcare is a changing world. Next year’s economics can be different from this year. We’ve been fortunate over the past five, six, seven years to do really well — well enough to take our enterprise from what it was a small red brick hospital to a regional facility. We have plans now — we are expanding in the Clear Springs area with an Urgent Care and adding a family practice in that direction. We also are planning to expand our medical office buildings to about 32,000 square foot of medical office building that we are going to put it on an undisclosed location at this time. But all in all, we are about 800 employees, a $110 million business with $52 million of that going back to salaries (of) people that live in this community. Our number one purpose though is provide healthcare and we do that with a culture of caring and we do that in a manner that that is our primary focus,” said Haynes.
Haynes says this latest venture to branch out north of Seguin will allow it to reach even more people. He says it’s about delivering the best possible healthcare to all those who need it.
“We have what we call itinerant positions. They go to different areas as far south as Cuero but it’s our first step with the hospital actually putting a physical building somewhere other than it’s primary 78155 (area). It will be an urgent care open seven days a week and to that extent next to it, will be a family practice and that’s our first venture to the north, Clear Springs,” said Haynes.
Over the last several months, the hospital has received plenty of accolades for its operation. Haynes the foundation lies with all those who dedicate their lives to patients 24/7.
“We recently were recognized as one of the Top 100 Places to work by Modern Healthcare, a national organization. We actually were ranked as the number 52 in the nation so we are very proud of that but that is an effort of working on the culture to create an environment (where) people who want to make a difference can make a difference,” said Haynes.
Haynes says the uniqueness behind GRMC’s long history of being a city, county owned hospital is well worth the determination to hang onto something great.
“This hospital was created by special legislation at the state but what it did is it created a seven member hospital board — three by the city, three by the county and one at large and that hospital board became the buffer between city politics and county politics and as you know, politics are politics. That buffer had one mission — provide healthcare. Those seven board members that are appointed, they hired the administrator and my predecessor Don Richey at a great job — doing what he did for 26 years and to that fact that this hospital is 54 years in existence and has had a total of three administrators so there’s been a lot of stability to get there and we are proud of it,” said Haynes.
Haynes says what might be even more incredible are the efforts brought forth by the city and county — efforts that go hand in hand in helping to make GRMC the hospital that it is today.
“The real beauty of it is you have the city of Seguin. You’ve got Guadalupe County, the commissioners court working together. I’ve got to give a plug for economic development because Josh and his team do a great job. As those jobs come into town and rooftops go up, that gives us a better opportunity to succeed and our job is to be prepared and to be there to provide healthcare. We have the latest robotics surgery. We have state-of-the art equipment because we put all of our money back into the facility,” said Haynes.
Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says the input and control that are drawn from having your very own hospital makes the operation that much more worthwhile.
“When you are the last city/county owned hospital in the entire state, that entity is the only one left typically it gets harder and harder to operate in that manner. But the partnerships and relationships that we have between those three entities continues to improve and get stronger and that’s a benefit to our residents and our community because we have real input and control and when the hospital, the city and the county have input and control, it means the citizens and the people who are our bosses have the control of what happens in our own community and that’s so much better than having somebody come in from another state from across the country deciding on what happens with our healthcare or our community and our lifestyle and our residents,” said Kutscher.
GRMC officials were on hand to share its budget and its current projects during Tuesday’s meeting of the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court. Hospital officials made a similar report to the Seguin City Council during its meeting on Tuesday night.