Odessa medical sector grows, innovates

​ODESSA – The Ector County Hospital District Board of Directors (ECHD) approved the purchase of six lots in downtown at $1.8 million. It could possibly go toward future office space. The board also approved a bid award for a future diabetes and endocrinology center.

First, the board approved the purchase of half a city block located between West Fifth St. and West Sixth St. and alongside North Alleghaney Ave.

"Longer-term, that land would probably house a future medical office building and additional parking," said Bill Webster, the Medical Center Hospital’s chief executive officer.

Second, the board of directors approved a $765,777 bid to JC Roberts Construction Company for the construction of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Diabetes and Endocrinology Center.

The center is scheduled to be constructed inside the second floor of the Center for Health and Wellness near SH 191 and above the Veteran’s Clinic.

Webster said it would take about 120 days for completion and work is scheduled to begin within the next 30 days.

Dr. Gary Ventolini, regional dean and professor at the TTUHSC, said the Odessa school has the only endocrinology fellowship out of the Texas Tech University system and wanted to find a way keep the doctors in the Permian Basin.

After receiving permission from Texas Tech University to build a center, Ventolini said he started working with officials with the hospital board to get the new center placed in the Center for Health and Wellness.