GALVESTON — The University of Texas Medical Branch will post an unprecedented $129 million loss for 2009, mostly related to Hurricane Ike.
Still, the medical branch, which by comparison lost $50 million the year before the devastating storm, said its finances were stabilizing and expects to break even next year.
Despite the large loss, the medical branch is able to go on, President Dr. David Callender said in a town-hall meeting at William C. Levin Hall on Tuesday.
That wasn’t always certain after the Sept. 13 storm severely flooded most buildings on the campus and knocked John Sealy Hospital, the medical branch’s main revenue maker, out of commission for months,
The medical branch’s fiscal year ends Aug. 31.
State lawmakers in the last legislative session appropriated $566.5 million in general revenue funding for the medical branch, an increase of almost $109 million over the previous biennium. In the last decade, lawmakers had cut funding for the state institution, which has a $1.5 billion budget.
The medical branch will receive $1.4 billion in insurance proceeds, Federal Emergency Management Agency funds and public and private matches to restore and expand services.
Officials said they expected revenues to be down sharply for years as the medical branch works to restore the 550 beds it had at John Sealy Hospital before Hurricane Ike.
