CHRISTUS Hospital Orange held ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate upcoming opening
January 31, 2024
KBMT 12 News
ORANGE, Texas — The Orange community will soon have a brand new hospital to serve their needs.
Tuesday was the ribbon cutting ceremony was held by CHRISTUS Southeast Texas to celebrate the new facility.
The state of the art hospital is located off of I10 on the 20-acre Gisela Houseman Medical Campus. The facility will offer hundreds of rural families a new option for their medical needs.
The healthcare facility will give the community and the surrounding areas an option to get medical care that's closer to home.
Since Baptist Hospital Orange closed its campus in 2017, Orange County residents have been forced to travel long distances for their medical needs.
"Several years ago members of the community here approached us to be part of this venture to bring hospital services back to Orange," said CHRISTUS Southeast Texas CEO Kevin Parsley.
He and developer NexCore have been laying the groundwork for a brand new hospital since 2020.
"They don't have to leave here. They can have the best services available for their clinicians," Parsley said.
The new facility will have all of the modern amenities to give Orange County residents good medical care.
"We've been able to bring technology that we have have in other parts of Southeast Texas to the community of Orange... particularly in the imaging services, the technology, 3D mammography, CT scanner, all of those," Parsley said.
Parsley is also excited to about the hospital bringing more jobs to Orange
"We have approximately 80 staff members and contract workers for CHRISTUS that will work here in this facility," he said.
Aspiring healthcare professionals will also get to train at the new facility, according to Parsley.
"Lamar University in Beaumont, Lamar Orange, Lamar Port Arthur. CHRISTUS already has a strong relationship with the nursing programs," Parsley told 12News.
Orange Mayor Larry Spears says prayers from his growing community have been answered.
"With all that we've been blessed, with all we've been able to produce and bring about, we still never had a hospital. So to finally have this come into fruition, it's a blessing all around for so many people," he said.
With the exception of MRI's, Parsley tells 12News that the new facility will be fully operational when it opens at 8 a.m. on Thursday, February 1, 2024.
Author: Gabby Gaspard, Kyle Orr
Published: 10:30 PM CST January 30, 2024
Updated: 10:32 PM CST January 30, 2024