COUNTY Harris Health pitches $2.5B bond for new hospital, service boosts in underserved areas
DEVELOPMENT Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital to add 30 inpatient beds, renovate lab space
BY SHAWN ARRAJJ
INVESTING IN HARRIS COUNTY’S HEALTH A total of $2.9 billion worth of projects have been proposed for the Harris Health System, $2.5 billion of which may be covered by an upcoming bond. HHS ocials noted the $400 million not covered by the bond would be raised either through internal operational savings, cost savings or philanthropy. Proposed projects include:
expand, making the new LBJ Hospital critical as demand for health care services continues to rise. The system has been “chronically underfunded,” Porsa said, and the hospitals are nearing their end of useful life if improvements aren’t made. The details: If passed, work on the new LBJ Hospital would begin rst, located adjacent to the existing one. It would open in 2028. After that, work would begin on refurbishing the existing LBJ Hospital to provide other services, such as inpatient psychiatric care. During this timeframe, HHS would also invest $500 million in community clinics, including opening clinics in east, northwest and southwest Harris County. Quote of note: “Harris County is home to the largest number and highest rate of uninsured in the country. The need for our services is only going to grow,” Porsa said. “Do we address that in a timely, thoughtful fashion, or do we
O cials with the Harris Health System pitched a $2.5 billion bond proposal to Harris County commissioners at a June 6 meeting. The background: HHS owns and operates Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital and Ben Taub Hospital; it also operates 17 community-based clinics, a dental center, a chronic dialysis center and three outpatient specialty clinics countywide. The big picture: HHS President and CEO Dr. Esmaeil Porsa said under the proposed bond, a new 390-bed LBJ Hospital would open with the capacity to expand to 450 beds as needed. Porsa said plans also include earning a Level I trauma center designation for the new LBJ Hospital, which would bolster heart and stroke capabilities, and feature a helipad. The need: Porsa said HHS’s existing hospitals don’t have any capacity to
BY HANNAH BROL
number of inpatients that we had admitted to the hospital on a daily basis was much lower than it is right now,” Roux said. “After the pandemic, we just stayed high; we never went down, and it’s not because we have a lot of COVID[-19] patients because we have very few, if any, of those on a day-to-day basis. It’s more that while we were in the middle of the pandemic, the community grew up around us.” Set to be completed by February, the $18.5 million project will result in the addition of 30 private inpatient rooms, bringing the hospital’s total bed count to 257. “[This expansion] means that patients won’t have to wait so long for beds [because] we’ll have some readily available, and there will be less time between admission ... and the time that you actually get to a bed,” Roux said. The 25,000-square-foot space will
In the coming months, Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital o cials will embark on two projects that will result in 30 new inpatient beds and a fully renovated, state-of-the-art lab. In July, Nikki Roux, vice president of operations for Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital, said renovations will begin on 25,000 square feet of unused space located in the hospital’s West Tower, which opened in 2018. At the time, Roux said hospital o cials were already anticipating future growth. “This is a very high-growth area,” Roux said. “So when we built [the West Tower], we took that in mind, just making sure we had space to expand into.” Roux also cited the area’s growing senior population—which typically means more hospital admissions—as another reason for the expansion. “Before the pandemic ... the
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$1.6 billion toward the creation of the new LBJ Hospital $500 million toward improvements at existing community clinics and the opening of three new community clinics in underserved parts of the county $400 million toward improvements at the existing LBJ Hospital $400 million toward improvements at Ben Taub Hospital
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Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital is set to add 30 private inpatient rooms by February. (Courtesy Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital)
also feature a therapy gym where patients can go to complete physical and occupational therapy. Roux noted the gym will be a rst for the Humble campus. “[The therapy gym] will give us an opportunity to bring patients ... to a location where they can take advantage of therapy adjunct devices that we would normally have to bring to their room, so this allows us more exibility,” Roux said. Further enhancing the campus, Roux said the hospital received approval in May for a full lab
renovation. While an exact timeline had not been identied for the $3.8 million project as of press time, Roux said construction is expected to take anywhere from six to 12 months. “Our lab is still in the same footprint as it was when the original hospital was built in 1977, and so, as we’ve gotten busier and added beds and buildings, we’ve kept the same [lab] footprint, and we’ve just added more equipment,” Roux said. “So we’re going to expand it by 40%, and it’ll be all state-of-the-art and [have] lots more usable space.”
SOURCE: HARRIS HEALTH SYSTEMCOMMUNITY IMPACT
wait for the bottom to fall out?”
Over that time, the owner of a $300,000 house in Harris County would see their property taxes increase by less than $6 per month. Next steps: HHS o cials said if the commissioners court approves the bond to be placed on the ballot in August, Harris County voters will get a chance to either support or reject the referendum in November.
The takeaway: The total cost of the projects is estimated at $2.9 billion. The $400 million not covered by the bond would be raised either through internal operational savings, cost savings or philanthropy, Porsa said. If approved, the tax rate for the HHS would increase by an estimated 2 cents over the course of the bond.
PORTER 23611 Hwy 59 (281) 354-0733 HUMBLE 19322 US-59 (281) 540-7202
KINGWOOD 1420 Kingwood Dr (281) 359-7115 ATASCOCITA 7034 FM 1960 E (281) 812-3100
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