For Immediate Release

For More Information: Palmira Arellano, VP Marketing and Public Relations - (210) 575-0172

Methodist Healthcare breaks ground on first “hospital of the future”

March 22, 2006 - SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Officials from Methodist Healthcare broke ground today on Methodist Stone Oak Hospital at the corner of Sonterra Boulevard and Hardy Oak (off 281N and Loop 1604). The first hospital in the world to incorporate the “hospital of the future” design elements, the facility will be built on how patients and physicians want to access health care today and into the future. It will be a regional health care destination for tertiary care services in virtually every service line.

With construction to be completed in 2008, Methodist Stone Oak Hospital will initially be a 132-bed tertiary care center to include outpatient services and a 100,000-square-foot physician office building. The overall master plan allows for as many as 350 beds with an additional 100,000-square-foot medical office building.

“The hospital of the future concept allows us to design a hospital that identifies the shortcomings of existing facilities in order to build-in design components that allow for a much better patient experience. Components like access enhancements that result in less frustrations for patients, their families and friends, as well as more efficient patient care. Above that, the hospital will be the first in this region to truly incorporate high tech and high touch health care delivery for patients and their family members,” said Dean Alexander, Methodist Stone Oak Hospital CEO. One aspect of the futuristic design that will make navigation easier is separate entrances for inpatient and outpatient care – all along one single corridor that traverses the length of the hospital and physician office building. Along this one corridor will be easily identifiable centers of care.

The most recent full service hospital to open in San Antonio was built almost 15 years ago. “So much has happened in health care over the past decade that demands a different approach to hospital design and construction. Some of the changes include a larger aged population; many services that were once delivered only on an inpatient basis moving to outpatient delivery; new technological breakthroughs and the need for the right kind of space to house these new diagnostic and treatment tools,” adds Alexander. Methodist Stone Oak Hospital will be the first full service hospital built in San Antonio in this decade.

Beyond offering comprehensive health care services, the highly-targeted focus of the new hospital on major tertiary services such as neurosciences and cardiac care will set it apart from others in the area. An emergency center designed to serve adults and children will also incorporate design and infrastructure changes that will enhance the patient/family experience. And, advanced technology will provide a greater level of quality and efficiency.

To commemorate the groundbreaking and, in keeping with community support that it is known for, Methodist Healthcare announced the creation of the Methodist Stone Oak Hospital Scholarships for the Future - two $1,500 scholarships to be awarded to a future health care professional and a future architect who are graduating from Ronald Reagan High School in May, 2006. Applications will be available next week in the school counseling office and are due April 28.

The new Methodist Stone Oak Hospital is being designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK), the architectural company that won a national competition to design the medical center of the future conducted by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), fifty percent owner of Methodist Healthcare. Locally-based Methodist Healthcare Ministries, the largest non-public source for community health care in South Texas, is the System’s other fifty percent owner.

Methodist Healthcare is San Antonio’s largest and most preferred health care provider whose facilities include seven acute care hospitals: Methodist Children’s Hospital of South Texas*, Methodist Hospital, Methodist Heart Hospital*, Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital*, Northeast Methodist Hospital*, Metropolitan Methodist Hospital*, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Hospital—Northwest and the Methodist Boerne Medical Center, currently in construction. Methodist Stone Oak Hospital* will be the organization’s eighth acute care hospital in the San Antonio community. In addition to the Boerne and Stone Oak construction projects, Northeast Methodist Hospital just completed a $50 million expansion, adding a new patient tower and doubling size of it’s emergency department and Metropolitan Methodist Hospital is undergoing a $50 million expansion with the recent construction of a 78,000 square foot Women’s Pavilion and the current renovation of their emergency department.

* a Methodist Hospital facility