Todd Hill, CEO of UT Health East Texas Physicians, speaks at announcement of new South Tyler sports medicine and orthopedics facility on Friday.

UT Health East Texas will build a two-story, 20,000-square-foot building in South Tyler to house orthopedics and sports medicine services, an urgent care, a diagnostic and imaging facility as well as outpatient rehabilitation.

Hospital officials and local leaders gathered Friday to break ground on the new facility, which has an anticipated opening in mid to late 2024.

The new building will be located on Old Jacksonville Highway, adjacent to the existing UT Health East Texas Physicians clinic on Three Lakes Parkway that houses family medicine, internal medicine, facial plastics and ear, nose and throat physicians.

“I know many of us remember that there was absolutely nothing in Old Jacksonville Road and now I look around and I can’t believe it,” said Julie Philley, Executive Vice President of Health Affairs and Vice Provost at UT Tyler. “[It is] an incredible time to live in Tyler and an incredible time to live in East Texas.”

Todd Hill, CEO of UT Health East Texas Physicians, said the expansion is in response to the growth patterns in South Tyler. It “allows us to offer a more convenient and accessible medical office building, thereby delivering care more efficiently,” he said.

In attendance at the announcement were Tyler Mayor Don Warren and Smith County Judge Neal Franklin, UT Tyler President Kirk Calhoun and many employees from UT Health East Texas. Warren spoke about Tyler and UT Health East Texas and commended the health organization.

“… This building is not just a building, it’s about people,” Warren said. “When I see the folks at UT Health, what you’re doing, you’re helping people not just here in Tyler but throughout the entire region.”

The facility will make it easier for people to get care in South Tyler, which is part of UT Health East Texas’ mission to meet people where they are at, according to Don McKay, UT Health East Texas Division Director for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. With this new facility, they will offer MRIs and CT without South Tyler residents having to go downtown to get those done and wait for the results.

“Ease of access was a critical component for us making it convenient for patients to seek care, drive up access to the door, the outpatient imaging services that we are going to provide in this area will make it certainly more convenient and will serve the community south of Tyler as a whole,” McKay said. “It’ll be a good access point for them.”

The facility will also provide educational opportunities in sports medicine and will be a hub for sports medicine, McKay said. Two fellows of the sports medicine fellowship program were in attendance at the event.

“We’ve seen significant growth in terms of the number of physicians, the number of medical school students that we’ve got, the residencies,” McKay said. “We will continue to grow, continue to grow strategically, add the right specialties and the right support, to make sure that they get the best education that they can.”

One of the reasons UT Health East Texas saw the need for this facility was due to patients who went to urgent care and had trouble seeing a specialist, said Joe Conflitti, Orthopedic Surgeon at UT Health East Texas Physicians. This will make it more seamless. Another reason was due to orthopedic injuries being common, Conflitti said.

“So if they were to come here, get diagnosed with injury, they can then do their therapy here as well to help them to recover,” Conflitti said. “Therapy is really important after surgery soon so if they end up having a surgery, as a result of the injury, then that can be just left here as well.”

The first floor of the new building will house extended-hours urgent care, imaging center and outpatient physical therapy. The urgent care will have an orthopedic emphasis, focusing on sprains and strains, possible broken bones or simple fractures. It also will provide walk-in care for minor illnesses and injuries, treating patients for conditions including fever, cold, flu and minor cuts that may need stitches.

The second floor will be dedicated to UT Health’s growing orthopedics and sports medicine specialties.