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Workers install glass panels during construction of the University Health Woman’s and Children’s Hospital, which is slated to open in mid-2023. The 12-story, 300-bed hospital for women, babies and children also features a 900-space parking garage. And a pediatric pharmacy will be added after University Health’s board of managers approved budget adjustments to accommodate the new project.

Concrete workers finish a floor during construction of the University Health Woman’s and Children’s Hospital, which is slated to open in mid-2023. The 12-story, 300-bed hospital for women, babies and children also features a 900-space parking garage. And a pediatric pharmacy will be added after University Health’s board of managers approved budget adjustments to accommodate the new project.

Concrete workers finish a floor during construction of the University Health Woman’s and Children’s Hospital, which is slated to open in mid-2023. The 12-story, 300-bed hospital for women, babies and children also features a 900-space parking garage. And a pediatric pharmacy will be added after University Health’s board of managers approved budget adjustments to accommodate the new project.

Construction is well underway at University Health’s Woman’s and Children’s Hospital, which is slated to open in mid-2023. The 12-story, 300-bed hospital for women, babies and children also features a 900-space parking garage. And a pediatric pharmacy will be added after University Health’s board of managers approved budget adjustments to accommodate the new project.

University Health System’s new women and children’s tower at University Hospital — shown in this architectural rendering — is expected to be completed in mid-2023. The 12-story, 300-bed hospital for women, babies and children also features a 900-space parking garage. And a pediatric pharmacy will be added after University Health’s board of managers approved budget adjustments to accommodate the new project.

Work continues on the University Health Woman’s and Children’s Hospital, which is slated to open in mid-2023. The 12-story, 300-bed hospital for women, babies and children also features a 900-space parking garage. And a pediatric pharmacy will be added after University Health’s board of managers approved budget adjustments to accommodate the new project.

University Health’s board of managers has approved budget adjustments to facilitate building a pediatric pharmacy inside the county’s under-construction women’s and children’s hospital.

Bexar County Hospital District’s has so far allocated $837.9 million to pay for the major expansion, which includes a 12-story tower, a 900-space parking garage, an advanced diagnostic center and a podium expansion that will be used for a new kitchen, servery, dining room and conference rooms.

Don Ryden, vice president for planning, design and construction, told the board Tuesday night that the $14.4 million pharmacy would be built into shell space and would largely be funded by project cost savings that include unused contingency funds from the podium and parking garage’s construction. The hospital is slated to open in mid-2023, with the pharmacy to follow late next year, he said.

The new pharmacy will include space for compounding, prescription review and processing, patient and staff dispensing windows, and the installation of robotic equipment that can fill syringes and intravenous treatments.

Elliott Mandell, senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer, said the new pharmacy will support the increase in neonatal intensive care and pediatric patients that is anticipated with the opening of the new hospital, as well as help to keep up with the system’s growing demand.

“When I first came to the hospital, we were filling 3,000 prescriptions a month,” Mandell said. “Now we’re doing almost 35,000 prescriptions a month, so we needed something dramatically bigger.”

Since taking over the pharmacy program, he’s added a “meds to beds” program that delivers medications to patients before they are discharged from the hospital, which eliminates financial and transportation barriers.

On ExpressNews.com: A look inside San Antonio’s future women’s and children’s hospital, due summer 2023

Even with the use of more automation, Mandell’s pharmacy staff has grown from just over 200 employees to 515.

The health system is planning to build a bigger off-site central pharmacy that would remotely serve patients and employees at pharmacies in University Health’s hospitals and clinics.

The board approved a recommendation from staff to amend contracts with its construction manager at risk agreement with Joeris+JE Dunn and adjust the project schedule with two other contractors.

The new 628,000-square-foot women’s and children’s hospital tower adjoins University Hospital’s 10-floor Sky Tower, which opened in 2014 and was part of the largest construction project in the county’s history at a cost of $899.4 million.

The architectural design from Marmon Mok plans for 30 intensive care unit rooms, 68 neonatal intensive care unit rooms, 30 acute care rooms, 60 rooms for OB-GYN services and 30 antepartum rooms.

The Bexar County Hospital District did not raise its property tax rate to fund this expansion. Money for the new women’s and children’s hospital comes from cash reserves and certificates of obligations, which is debt issued by local governments to finance projects without voter approval.

On ExpressNews.com: University Health makes plans to build two new hospitals

University Health is moving forward with another major expansion approved last month that would add two community hospitals to the system — a 140-bed hospital on the Southwest Side near Texas A&M University-San Antonio and a 140-bed hospital on the Northeast Side at Retama.

The total cost for both proposed hospital projects is estimated at $950 million, to be funded with $450 million in cash reserves and $500 million in tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Hospital officials said there will be no increase in property taxes, but they are required by law to inform residents through a notice in the newspaper and wait 45 days before the Bexar County Commissioners Court can proceed with the bond transaction.

An April Express-News investigation on health inequities found that medical facilities in San Antonio are heavily concentrated in the northern parts of the city, placed in areas where patients generally are healthier and more affluent and where providers can collect higher reimbursements from insurance companies.

The report found that for every eight hospitals and freestanding emergency room facilities in the northern parts of the city, there is only one on the South Side.

The Retama hospital could open as soon as 2026, and the Texas A&M hospital as soon as 2027.

Laura Garcia is a reporter at the San Antonio Express-News focused on health care. Previously, the South Texas native was the features editor and nonprofits reporter at the Victoria Advocate. She is president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists, which gives scholarships to communications students and advocates for diversity in news.