Historically, the El Paso region has been medically underserved, but that began to change about a decade ago as the city’s business and government leaders took steps to build the region’s health care and life sciences infrastructure. Public and private health care systems also recognized the high demand for services in the growing region and began to invest in expansion of their health care services.
Access to quality health care for Paso del Norte residents is expanding dramatically, thanks to a boom in construction and expansion of hospitals, clinics and other facilities across the region. Here are some notable highlights:
University Medical Center of El Paso: On the Medical Center of the Americas campus in central El Paso, the nonprofit, community-owned University Medical Center of El Paso stands out as a regional powerhouse: It serves as a teaching and research hospital in partnership with the adjacent Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso. UMC is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in a 280-mile radius and provides the region’s only certified Comprehensive Stroke Center.
El Paso Children’s Hospital: Also located on the MCA campus is El Paso Children’s Hospital, which opened in 2012. With 122 private rooms, it is the largest pediatric medical facility in West Texas, and also serves as a teaching hospital for TTUHSC El Paso.
THOP Transmountain Campus: One of the El Paso’s newest hospitals, Tenet Healthcare’s The Hospitals of Providence Transmountain Campus, opened in 2017 on the growing northwest side of the city, in the shadow of the scenic Franklin Mountains. The 106-bed teaching hospital is a collaboration between The Hospitals of Providence and TTUHSC El Paso. The hospital has the capacity to provide up to 100 medical residents the opportunity for world-class training.
Replacement of the William Beaumont Army Medical Center: A billion-dollar medical campus is under construction on Fort Bliss, one of the Army’s largest posts, headquartered in El Paso. The 272-acre campus, located in Far East El Paso, is replacing the army’s 40-year old William Beaumont Army Medical Center. The Fort Bliss Replacement Hospital, as it is currently officially named, is scheduled for completion in 2019. The 1.13 million square-feet campus will be home to several major structures, including a seven-story hospital, clinical and administrative buildings, a clinical investigations building and a utilities plant. The new hospital is designed to have 138 beds, 10 operating rooms, more than 300 exam rooms and 30 specialty clinics.
At the end of the millennium, the El Paso community made a commitment to improving access to health care for its residents by supporting efforts to improve health care education in El Paso. These efforts resulted in the establishment of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center of El Paso, which became a freestanding university within the Texas Tech System in 2013. TTUHSC El Paso is located within the Medical Center of the Americas campus, and is producing a pipeline of trained medical professionals, many of whom stay to practice in El Paso. TTUHSC El Paso’s schools include:
TTUHSC El Paso has also announced plans for the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine, expected to accept its first class in 2021.
The University of Texas at El Paso also supported the transformation of El Paso’s health care sector by investing $60 million in a state-of-the-art, five-story, Health Sciences and Nursing Building on the UTEP campus. The building opened in 2011, accommodating 3,000 students.
A little less than an hour’s drive north of El Paso is the region’s newest medical school, the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine. The private school, located on New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Park, began educating physicians in 2016.
Private Sector:
Public Sector:
