CHRISTUS Santa Rosa hospital in San Antonio announced on Friday that effective immediately, the downtown hospital will be known as Children's Hospital of San Antonio.
The announcement comes a month after University Hospital terminated its letter of intent after more a year of negotiations with CHRISTUS Santa Rosa.
President and CEO Pat Carrier says the hospital will undergo a $135 million, 800,000-square-foot expansion.
He says no taxpayer funds will go into creating the Tier 1 facility.
The announcement comes just the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, considered one of the best in the nation, is preparing a joint proposal with Vanguard of Tennessee that owns Baptist Health System in San Antonio.
Methodist Healthcare is still actively pursuing its own proposal.
"It's a new beginning for health care in San Antonio and South and Central Texas," said Pat Carrier, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa president and CEO, in a written statement. "With the full backing of CHRISTUS Health –– undergirded by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and our 50-year legacy of excellence and commitment to children's healthcare, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa will develop a financially viable, privately and philanthropically funded, separately licensed, freestanding children's hospital in the heart of downtown San Antonio."
Contractors are set to be in place in 60 days.
In response to the announcement, Dr. William L. Henrich, president of the UT Health Science Center, released the following statement:
"When it comes to the health of our children in San Antonio and South Texas, the UT Health Science Center continues to have one clear and consistent goal: to provide comprehensive and superior quality health care that returns sick children to full health and keeps all children healthy and also ensures superb training for future physicians in pediatrics.
Our longstanding relationship with Christus Santa Rosa is important to us, as is our goal of having a comprehensive, state-of-the-art pediatric teaching facility that will deliver the best care to children and attract the finest pediatric specialists in the country to do so.
The Health Science Center is committed to continuing conversations with all parties who share this goal until we can secure the very best solution for our children. The children of our community deserve nothing less than this."