TTTUHSC El Paso and Sierra Providence Health Network (SPHN) recently broke ground on a new multimillion dollar teaching hospital and medical office building in far west El Paso at the corner of Transmountain Road and Resler Drive.

The ceremony marks the beginning of the construction of the 140-bed teaching hospital that will become the fourth acute-care hospital in the SPHN.

The new hospital will provide an educational site for medical students, nursing students, resident physicians and faculty from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, and will eventually offer training for approximately 75 physicians in training across a multi-year program.

“Our new affiliation with Sierra Providence Health Network will allow our students to learn in a state-of-the-art community-based hospital, while meeting the needs of our growing student body, as well as our accreditation requirements for expanding class size,” said Richard Lange, M.D., M.B.A., founding president of TTUHSC El Paso and dean of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.

The investment in new technology and medical research will enhance educational training in specialties like emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology and surgery. This collaboration will also provide patients with opportunities to participate in cutting-edge research.

“Sierra Providence Health Network is committed to making the City of El Paso the preferred destination for health care services in the region, and we couldn’t be more excited about our collaboration with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso to help us achieve this objective,” said Eric Evans, market CEO for SPHN.

“Together, we will offer an outstanding quality and exceptional service to northwest El Paso, southern New Mexico and Juarez. The collaboration will facilitate the sharing of best practices among clinical leaders to further drive improvements in care. We are proud to take this important step in our quest to provide world-class health care to the communities we serve.”

This development complements SPHN’s continued investment in El Paso, including the recent completion of a new patient tower at Sierra Providence East Medical Center and the ongoing renovation/expansion work being completed at Sierra Medical Center and Providence Memorial Hospital.

TTUHSC and SPNH have also collaborated to develop the city’s first acute-care based geriatric behavioral health unit at Providence Memorial Hospital and to add TTUHSC El Paso anesthesia providers to care for patients throughout the network.