“We're still so vastly underserved,” said Dr. Carlos Gutierrez. “The poor people. Right now is the busy time of year and most of our doctor’s offices, they have to wait anywhere from one to four hours.”

But since construction began just more than one year ago on the Children’s Hospital, pediatric specialists have been moving to El Paso.

“Just the promise brought in many new subspecialists in pediatrics that we've never had,” said Gutierrez. “Just the promise.”

University Medical Center’s Director of Public Affairs Margaret Althoff-Olivas released the following statement to KFOX: “The Children's Hospital is still two years from opening, yet we've already been successful at recruiting to our campus 3 pediatric intensivists (critical care mds), 3 pediatric surgeons, 2 pediatric hematologists/oncologists, a pediatric anesthesiologist and a pediatric gastroenterologist. We also have commitments from several other pediatric sub-specialists who will begin work soon. That level of expertise in pediatrics has never before been available in El Paso and we're just getting started!"

Gutierrez said, “We tell them if you come here, you can be in charge of your program. Where could they find something like that in any part of the country? Not even at Harvard or Stanford.”