How Will Health Care Change in the Decades Ahead?
Central Texans Asked to Share Prognostications by March 18
This year and next, fast-paced changes in health care will speed up in Central Texas with the opening of the University of Texas’ new Dell Medical School andDell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas.
What does the future hold? What innovations will occur – in technology, service delivery and the ways care providers and patients interact? What will we do better? What might seem unimaginable to most of us now – but very likely commonplace decades from now?
The public is invited to join employees of Seton Healthcare Family, a member of Ascension, in providing prognostications that will be included in a time capsule to be embedded within a wall at Dell Seton Medical Center at UT. Ascension, Seton and local donors are funding its construction on the northwest corner of 15th and Red River streets.
A panel, including physicians, medical school faculty and health care informatics experts, will review submissions and make final decisions as to what is placed inside the time capsule. The capsule will be ceremoniously put in place in May – one year before the new teaching hospital is scheduled to open. Seton will reveal which predictions and what other items are inside it at a special ceremony.
Predictions can be submitted via email to timecapsule@seton.org or by tweeting #dellsetoncapsule. The deadline is Friday, March 18.
Seton is a member of Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and nonprofit healthcare system.Seton and Ascension are investing $245 million toward the $295 million teaching hospital. The Seton Fund, with help from community leader fundraising volunteers, is spearheading efforts to raise the other $50 million from the community – one of the largest goals for a single, nongovernmental building campaign in Austin’s history. No taxpayer funds are paying for construction.
The new hospital will replace University Medical Center Brackenridge, located across 15th Street, as the only Level I trauma center for adults serving a surrounding, 11-county community. It will be the primary teaching hospital for Dell Medical School – but not the only one in the Seton system.
At Seton Medical Center Austin, Seton Shoal Creek Hospital and Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, doctors also will be training future doctors, conducting groundbreaking research and implementing new treatments. Seton has funded most of the costs for graduate medical education in Austin since 2005, and is committed to continuing this support in partnership with UT.
The new medical school is the first to be built in the U.S. at a Tier 1 research university in nearly half a century. Seton is playing a major role in helping to shape the school’s signature curriculum and research efforts, focused on creating a more efficient and effective health care system and training future physician leaders.
About Seton Healthcare Family
Seton Healthcare Family, a member of Ascension, is a faith-based non-profit health care system founded in 1902 by the Daughters of Charity. Called to be a sign of God’s unconditional love for all, Seton strives to expand access to high-quality, low-cost, person-centered care and services.
Seton operates more than 100 clinical locations, including four teaching hospitals that will be training sites for Dell Medical School at The University of Texas starting in 2016. One of those training sites is a world-class pediatric medical center with its own Level I trauma center. Seton conducts research in the prevention and treatment of stroke, traumatic injury, epilepsy and cardiovascular disease.
Seton collaborates with employers, commercial insurance companies, community physicians, nonprofit agencies and government entities to create clinically integrated systems of care with providers throughout its 10,000-square-mile service area. Partners in providing health care include the Austin Independent School District; the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians; and Central Health. An example of innovative health care delivery is Seton’s and Central Health’s Community Care Collaborative, a unique and ambitious integrated delivery system for Travis County residents living at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
Seton employs almost 12,800 and is a major contributor to the Central Texas economy. Over the past decade, Seton has donated $2.9 billion in care and $2 billion in community benefit with help from generous donors and volunteers.
