Supply chain shortages not slowing progress on new Rusk State Hospital patient complex

RUSK, Texas (KLTV) - Construction remains underway at the Rusk State Hospital in Cherokee County. The Texas Legislature and Governor Greg Abbott approved a $745 million investment in the modernization of the Texas State Hospital System.

Almost 216 construction workers are working on the Rusk State Hospital renovations, a nearly $200 million project to build a modern 227,000 square-foot patient complex. They’ve finished the administration building. According to Timothy Bray, Associate Commissioner for State Hospitals of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, they are 46 percent through with the patient complex.

“What that means is the concrete foundation is complete, the structural steel installation is nearly complete,” Bray said. “We’ve started on the interior framing, the mechanical, the electrical, plumbing, all of that sort of thing. Then of course all of the steel structure gets fire proofed, so all of that is ongoing right now.”

The administration building was finished in July and opened for staff in September.

“Rusk (State Hospital) is very old. Rusk has been a hospital for well over a hundred years and the structures deteriorate over time,” Bray said. “So it was time for a new, modern patient complex to be built for the next hundred years for Rusk. I’m just very pleased that the legislature invested in that.”

Bray said it will be a 200-bed patient complex. One hundred beds are going to be maximum-security beds. They currently have 40 maximum security beds.

“We’re also taking down five additional old and vacant buildings that are on campus today. Those are all very old; we don’t use them,” he said. “By taking some of those down, that will also change the landscape for Rusk State Hospital and open up the possibility of further new construction if that’s what the legislature chooses in the future.”

Bray said right now they are on track even with some supply chain shortages being seen across the nation.

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