Katy, Texas – November 20, 2015
The Katy Area Economic Development Council hosted “Vision of Katy: A Dialogue on Healthcare” on Thursday, November 12 at The Club at Falcon Point.
The event, which was organized by the Katy Area EDC Leadership and Talent Task Force, is part of a series of “Vision” events focusing on improving and enhancing the Katy area. Roughly 75 people turned out for the event which featured four speakers from major healthcare providers in the Katy area followed by group discussion on the state of local healthcare and how it can be bettered.
“Ultimately, we want to make the Katy area a prime location for businesses to locate and people to live,” said Katy Area EDC President/CEO. “To do that, we must continue to create an outstanding quality of life from housing options to healthcare. The information and discussion from this event, and from future events, will allow us to continue to improve.”
Featured speakers included Jim Parisi, CEO Memorial Hermann Katy; Matthew Shaefer, Assistant Vice President Texas Children’s Hospital West; Peyton Elliott, Vice President of Operations Methodist West Houston Hospital and Gregory M. Chronowski, M.D.; Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology MD Anderson Cancer Centers.
All four speakers described how their respective facilities are continuing to grow and expand to meet the needs of the Katy area, and provide the community with world-class healthcare without the need to travel to the Texas Medical Center. Memorial Hermann Katy is currently is the midst of an $85 million expansion and Texas Children’s is investing $50 million on numerous projects on its Katy area campus. Houston Methodist West and MD Anderson have also committed $170 million and $117 million for expansion in the Katy area as well.
“Healthcare is a target industry of the Katy Area EDC, and we currently have over $400 million committed to capital investment projects in the healthcare industry in our area,” stated LaCour. “That is simply an incredible number and shows the commitment by healthcare providers to offer world-class healthcare in our area.”
Following the presentations, attendees broke into small groups to discuss healthcare in the Katy area and how it can be improved to meet the needs of the population. Key themes derived from discussion included the need to improve educational opportunities in the healthcare to meet the workforce needs of the Katy area healthcare industry. Additionally, it was discussed how the Katy area must continue to do more to offer healthy lifestyle options to its residents such as increasing the number of parks and biking paths. Improvements in healthcare offerings will help make the community healthier as a whole and bring in new residents interested in such healthy lifestyle amenities.
“The small group discussion at these events is vitally important as it allows our organization to better understand what we need to do to improve specific aspects of working and living in the Katy area,” added Stan Goss, Chairman of the Katy Area EDC Talent and Leadership Task Force. “The opportunity to get a diverse group of great leaders from the Katy area together such as this event fosters great ideas and it is something we take advantage of.”
The next “Visions” event will take place in the spring. More information will become available as the event date grows closer.