Health care
BY BRADLEY DOUNTZ
Health Care Edition
2026
What's inside
Readers, welcome to Community Impact’s annual Health Care Edition. This annual guide explores the many factors shaping the health care landscape across the Katy and Fulshear area. Readers can learn more about the shift from traditional primary care to alternative health care options as well as see updates from three area hospitals and find out what health care facilities are taking shape across the area. This edition also looks at what lawmakers are doing amid rising health care costs across the state.
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Find out what’s happening at 3 local hospitals (Page 25)
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See how the area’s health care landscape is changing (Page 28)
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Leading medicine in West Houston, Katy and surrounding communities by delivering the Houston Methodist standard of unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation.
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Fort Bend County is undergoing its first air quality study analysis to determine how air pollution varies across the county. What residents need to know Fort Bend County Health and Human Services partnered with The University of Texas at Austin and UTHealth Houston School of Public Health to conduct a three-week study to measure the county’s air quality at a neighborhood level. The $100,000 study aims to support county public health initiatives by providing a baseline assessment to guide future air quality solutions, officials said in an April 7 news release. Fort Bend County undergoing 1st air quality study
How it works Daniel Sung, a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin, said the study is a mixture of stationary and mobile monitoring over a three-week period, which was completed this spring. The van contained a computer monitor and a Vocus mass spectrometer, a real-time monitoring system, capable of measuring more than 1,000 air pollutants, per the release. Officials will look at variables such as time of day, day of the week, temperature as well as both indoor/outdoor air pollution while tracking pollut- ants, including ozone, fine particulate matter, nitro- gen oxides and carbon monoxide, among others. The background Dr. Letosha Gale-Lowe, local health authority and Fort Bend County health and human services director, said the study came after a resident shared air quality concerns as the county continues to grow. “We need to understand how air pollution varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, and by using advanced mobile air monitoring equipment to identify pollution hotspots, we are gathering high
Air pollution and your health What is air pollution?
Air pollution is a mix of hazardous substances from both human-made sources like vehicle emissions and natural gas heating, as well as natural sources such as wildfire smoke. How does air pollution affect your health? Air pollution exposure is associated with oxidative stress and inflammation in human cells, which may lay a foundation for chronic diseases and cancer. Who is affected by air pollution? Air pollution affects everyone’s health, but certain groups may be harmed more. Almost nine out of 10 people who live in urban areas worldwide are affected by air pollution.
SOURCE: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES/COMMUNITY IMPACT
resolution data that’s necessary to make informed, data-driven decisions,” Gale-Lowe said. Next steps Data analysis is underway with a final report expected in mid-2026.
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KATY - FULSHEAR EDITION
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