By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz <\/p>\n
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF <\/p>\n
Updated: 11:08p.m.Sunday,April1,2012 <\/p>\n
Published: 8:49p.m.Sunday,April1,2012 <\/p>\n
EL PASO The Rock Kiss bar, with its neon pink walls, stands a few steps from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, the state's newest medical school. Although a sign advertises happy hour, the bar is shuttered, having been acquired by the growing school to make way for a parking lot, trees and shrubs. <\/p>\n
Across the street, a children's hospital opened earlier this year, as did an adjacent women's hospital within a recently renovated county hospital. <\/p>\n
Thus, in ways large and small, a sizable medical complex is emerging in El Paso, a high-desert city of 649,000 people along the border with Mexico and New Mexico. <\/p>\n
Political, business and nonprofit leaders reached a consensus more than 10 years ago that educating medical students, treating patients and exploring biotechnology are essential to the future well-being of this area's people and economy. Several hundred million dollars from local tax proceeds, legislative appropriations and philanthropic donations have flowed into the effort. <\/p>\n
Probably the singular thing here was to have a very consistent message that this is the most important thing to us,\" said Woody Hunt, a businessman and philanthropist who helped organize a 1998 economic summit that focused attention on the health care field following the collapse of the garment industry, which had been an economic mainstay. <\/p>\n
Hunt added, \"You've got to have vision. You've got to be organized. You've got to be patient.\" <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
More here: By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Updated: 11:08p.m.Sunday,April1,2012 Published: 8:49p.m.Sunday,April1,2012 EL PASO The Rock Kiss bar, with its neon pink walls, stands a few steps from the Paul L. Continue reading
\nEl Paso medical school offers lessons for Austin's effort<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"