Hospital prospects
Back in July the City of Pinehurst joined with other local entities to study the medical needs of Orange County with the hope of getting a new hospital built in the county. Pinehurst City Administrator Robbie Hood said the $40,000 study is still moving forward and has identified two possible locations for a new hospital to be located in the county.
Hood indicated the two sites recommended through the study are an unincorporated area of FM 1442 at Interstate 10 and a second possibility of State Highway 62 at Interstate 10 which would be in the City of Orange. Either location would be more centrally located in the county than Baptist Hospital which closed its doors to inpatient care this year prompting the study.
The study is looking for a 25-bed hospital being built at an estimated cost of about $59 million. Hood added the construction of a new hospital at one of the two proposed locations would hopefully attract more citizens of Orange County to a local hospital. Hood pointed out that currently many citizens in Vidor go to Beaumont for medical care and citizens in Bridge City and the south end of the county go to Port Arthur. A new hospital centrally located would give medical care in Orange County a new identity and a new face that might get those citizens here according to Hood.
The economic impact of a new hospital in the county would be felt by the City of Pinehurst. Hood believes a new hospital would attract new physicians and possibly other new medical facilities around it which would be a boom to Orange County. He thinks the boom would create more jobs which would mean the need for more residential housing and everyone benefits from it.
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