JASPER, Texas — The Jasper Hospital District is expanding its healthcare services and is in need for doctors to step in.
The hospital district has the money and 38 acres of land surrounding the Christus Southeast Texas Jasper Memorial Hospital to build multiple satellite clinics, but need doctors to run them.
Specialty doctors like cardiologists and oncologists that use to have practices in Jasper have either retired or passed away, leaving residents to drive hours to Lufkin or even to Beaumont for necessary care.
"We have a large geriatric population and it's hard sometimes for geriatric patients to travel to Beaumont, to Houston, the Lufkin area. So, what we'd like to do is bring the specialties here," said Jasper Hospital District Board Director, Debra Harris.
District members hope the land will become the new home of the "Jasper Hospital District Mediplex."
"The hospital district through our capital fund we're willing to build a clinic for you to operate out of. Just behind me here we recently purchased the old Burke Center building and we have now leased it to a pediatric group which should be moving in after the first of the year," Harris said.
There are already five potential doctors interested in opening offices there.
"We'll work out a lease agreement and they'll pay us the lease fee and in years to come we may work out an agreement where they eventually could own the property," she said.
Harris tells 12News, this is just the beginning of their plan to expand healthcare access in Jasper.
"Air rescue is housed here in Jasper is shifting from a 12-hour shift to a 24-hour, 7 days a week. We're moving a helicopter pad which will be in a much better operating area and we're going to build them a new hanger and new crew quarters," she said.
In the end, it's the residents of Jasper who will benefit.
"We've had numerous people who are contacting us as word gets out that we're starting this. It's actually growing faster than we anticipated," Harris said.
Harris says the Life Flight company receives about 14 calls a month.
"If a stroke patient comes in a cardiac any type of trauma anything like that that's life or death we utilize that helicopter because they can get there in a matter or 20 or 30 minutes versus going by ground that could be two hours or more," she said.
Harris says Jasper County is planning to help with infrastructure development and they hope to have the hanger and helicopter pad done by March 2023.
The 63-year-old Mary Dickerson Hospital along Highway 96 will also be demolished. It was permanently closed after Tropical Storm Harvey hit the Southeast Texas region in 2017.
Jasper Hospital District Director Laura Moore tells 12News, Jasper County Jail inmates are helping with the demolition process. They've been salvaging metal to help pay for the costs.
Moore says it could cost $500,000 to tear the building down.
She hopes they could sell this land and bring new businesses to the area.
"Everyone would love to see some big high-end grocery store, big HEB or Kroger or something like that come in, but whatever it becomes we want it to be beneficial to the community and make a statement," Moore said.
Board members hope to have the land ready to sell by 2024.