Odessa College and about 500 of its closest friends celebrated the grand opening of the Wood Health Sciences Building Tuesday.
The four-story 83,000-square-foot edifice is the culmination of three to three and a half years of work, from discussions to completion. OC President Gregory Williams put the cost at between $40 to $45 million, which included funds from Odessa College and many donors throughout the community.
The building is named for the Wood Family Foundation, a major donor to the project. JSA was the architect for the building.
The morning included building tours. A resolution from state Sen. Kevin Sparks, R-Midland, also was read.
- The first floor is the Medical Center Simulation Hospital, which includes everything from a simulated ambulance to an operating room and intensive care unit.
- The second floor has community event spaces, including a 450-capacity event room and a large capacity lecture hall.
- The third floor is a Medical Center Health System Foundation instructional floor where nursing, respiratory and kinesiology students train to develop their skills and provide quality care to the Basin.
- The fourth floor includes the physical therapy assistant, surgical technologist, radiologic technologists, EMT and paramedic programs and the outpatient rehab unit.
Williams said more programs will be added such as dental hygiene. The college has also restarted its respiratory care program and added an RN to the bachelor of nursing program.
Vice President for Advancement Allisa Cornelius said it started with a dream.
“We dreamed of a way to train our students using modern amenities, and if we could make it work, we loved the idea of finding a way for interdisciplinary training to happen. What we have today is more than a dream. It is everything to the students who want to help people, to serve people and to ensure that they are there to support them and see them through some of life’s hardest moments. The spaces you will see today will transform our students; transform the way they see and interact with their training and future patients. My hope is that for years to come, students will commit themselves to being the very best in the Permian Basin because they were trained in the best environment by the best faculty,” Cornelius said.
Tramaine Anderson-Silvas, vice president for instruction, said the demand for healthcare workers is expected to increase dramatically.
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics project that at least 195,000 plus nurses are going to be needed in this country by 2030. The need for nurses, technicians, specialists and practitioners in allied health, behavioral health, long-term primary care is going to be and it is already tremendous and the Permian Basin is no exception,” Anderson-Silvas said.
Anderson-Silvas added that the Wood Health Sciences Building will be the hub for educating and training future professionals who will go on to serve, in countless ways, improving the health and well being of Odessa and the Permian Basin.
“I want to take this moment to thank and encourage a few people that are here today. None of this would be possible without the tireless work of our incredible team and staff here at Odessa College who spent countless hours preparing for this building,” she added.
Associate Dean of Health Sciences Lori Fierro-Iverson said the building is a state-of-the-art facility “that stands as a testament to the dedication and commitment of countless individuals.”
MCH President and CEO Russell Tippin said the Basin is growing and he knows that first hand.
“We had a bumper crop last month. We delivered more babies than we’ve ever seen before — 225 — and there are more coming. We have got to be prepared. That was the whole idea behind the Medical Center Simulation (Hospital) was that the students (would get) as close to hands-on training as they can get here so when they leave this building and they’re looking down at maybe you as the patient, you know that they’ve had good, quality training in an environment that best simulates the environment that they’re going to be placed in at Medical Center Hospital,” Tippin said.
Most every health care provider in the Permian Basin will have Odessa College on their transcript in one way or another, he added.
“This to me means one thing — there’s no place like home. When you can grow your own and serve your own, people are best trained at home and that the environment that we’re going to put them in that will shorten the time from the classroom to the bedside only means better care and (a) better outcome for our patients, which is you, the people of the Permian Basin,” Tippin said.
Ector County Hospital District Board Vice President Don Hallmark said when they first looked at the health sciences building, they had to determine how they were going to recruit nurses.
“That was costing us over $1 million a year,” Hallmark said. “The math was pretty easy to see that they can graduate enough people every year to get us the nurses that we need. We are continuously 80 RNs short … That’s been ever since I’ve been on the board. If we can close that gap it will mean that we’ll be able to take care of more patients a day, take care of patients better each day which means that the health and wellness of West Texas will be better. Pretty easy math.”
