GALVESTON — Emergency medical service in Galveston County more than doubled Saturday when the University of Texas Medical Branch reopened its emergency center. The emergency room at John Sealy Hospital had been closed since Hurricane Ike flooded the UTMB campus 11 months ago.
After a week of staff preparations and trial runs, the emergency room was scheduled to open its doors at 8 a.m. but opened 15 minutes early because of the first patient’s early arrival.
Tabunka Toran drove her daughter, Myricle, to the emergency center after she awoke with severe abdominal pain. The Toran family, visiting Galveston from Humble, had no idea they were the emergency room’s first visitors since the storm.
“We didn’t know if it was open or not because we saw all of the construction going on around here,” Tabunka said. “But people came to us right away and asked if we needed any assistance, then the doctor saw us.”
Before the hurricane, the emergency room was one the Houston-Galveston region’s three Level 1 trauma centers. It lost that status because of complications from the hurricane.
Mike Hill, associate chief operations officer at UTMB, said the emergency room now offers the same Level 1 care that it previously did but that it would take a few months before it can regain its status.
“We’re seeking redesignation right now, and it’s really a volume and time issue,” Hill said. “Since we’ve been closed, it’s going to take a little while to build up that kind of volume. I would say in the next four to six months, we could see our designation come back.”
The American College of Surgeons designates a hospital a Level 1 trauma center when it can provide care to patients with any level of injury, conducts research and offers an educational program.
The reopening of the UTMB emergency center also should take pressure of Memorial Hermann Hospital and Ben Taub Hospital’s emergency centers, the only other Level 1 trauma centers in the region. Those two emergency centers have taken up the major trauma slack since the medical branch shut the doors of its emergency room.
Earlier this year, the Harris County Medical Society reported that Houston hospital emergency centers treated 300 patients a day who previously would have gone to the emergency center in Galveston.
Mainland Medical Center in Texas City and Clear Lake Regional Medical Center in Webster also saw the traffic into their emergency rooms more than double after the UTMB emergency center shut down.
Patients also will welcome quicker trips to emergency care especially those involved in major accidents that may not require Level 1 trauma care. Hill said the emergency center at John Sealy has its helipad up and running and will be accepting accident victims as well.
Before the reopening, patients in need of extra care were transferred to other area hospitals.
Roughly 75 patients received treatment at the emergency room by early Saturday evening. UTMB spokesman Raul Reyes said it was a good start.
Reyes said he wasn’t sure how many patients would arrive on their own since the emergency room had just opened, but he knew there would be a decent turnout since emergency services knew to direct the necessary traffic to the hospital.
After a number of layoffs and hospital staff leaving due to the closure, UTMB has brought in a number of new workers to ensure the emergency room is running at its full capability, Hill said.
Hill also said the hospital will place more emphasis on patient care.
“One of the things we wanted to do when we reopened was to become a much more patient-friendly environment and much more of a satisfaction driven department,” Hill said. “We’ve always provided quality care, but it’s the extra effort related to the patient and the families that we’re striving for.”
