Texas system picks contractor for new facility

Wise Regional Health System, Decatur, Texas, selected Hill & Wilkinson, Dallas, as general contractor for a new 160-bed, $54 million hospital. The hospital will be built on the system's east campus, across a highway from Wise's existing acute-care hospital and adjoining an existing medical services building, said Steve Summers, chief executive officer for Wise. The new hospital will hold all of Wise's acute-care operations, with subacute and other health services remaining in the existing 85-bed hospital building, he said. Summers said the new beds are being added to meet planned growth in Decatur, which is about 35 miles northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth. Construction is expected to finish in the spring of 2006. -- by Paul Barr