Morgan's Wonderland project receives $1.5M federal grant for new surgical center

The Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration will award a $1.5 million grant to the Multi-Assistance Center at Morgan's Wonderland to build its new ambulatory surgical center, according to an announcement by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo Tuesday.

The grant's funding was secured through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The Multi-Assistance Center is slated to open this fall in a new three-story, 165,000-square-foot building on Wurzbach Parkway and Thousand Oaks, near Morgan's Wonderland, according to Gordon Hartman, Morgan's Wonderland founder and executive chair of Morgan's Inclusion Initiative, which oversees the venture.

The center is intended to be a "one-stop-shop" care model for disabled individuals with physical and cognitive special needs to get medical and non-medical services in one place without having to "crisscross" all over the city, he said — a common problem for parents of children with high medical needs.

The forthcoming ambulatory surgical center will be one more service they're able to add to the one-stop model.

"When it opens this fall, the MAC will bring together 30 partner organizations under one roof," Hartman told the Business Journal.

Through community partners at the MAC, patients will be able to receive social services such as counseling, social, legal and financial planning, long-term care planning, housing, food assistance and job training — as well as different kinds of screening services and therapeutic services.

It will also have a medical institute, keeping these services under one roof and in one network. The new surgical center is part of the MAC's medical institute and accommodate audiology testing, blood draws, dental procedures performed with sedation, eye exams and outpatient surgeries that must be performed under anesthesia.

The medical institute will be a fully accessible and sensory-sensitive space, with sensory-friendly examination rooms, imaging, diagnostics, pharmacy services and telemedicine options, as well as specialty clinics like dental, mental health, optometry and ophthalmology. It's intended to house more than 145 staff members and receive approximately 150,000 visitors yearly.

Allan Castro, who has an extensive background in managing and expanding health care centers, serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Multi-Assistance Center and Jana Grohman, formerly Chief Operating Officer of social services organization Any Baby Can of San Antonio, serves as Chief Operating Officer.