GALVESTON — The University of Texas Medical Branch’s John Sealy Hospital, which was flooded by Hurricane Ike and rocked by a mass layoff as a result, will open at 7 a.m. Monday with 200 beds, officials said Friday.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Hospital, where state prison inmates receive medical care, also will reopen Monday with 32 beds. John Sealy’s emergency room will not reopen Monday, a spokeswoman said.
“We’re ready to serve our patients again,” said David Marshall, interim chief operating officer, in a prepared statement.
“We are not where we were before, but this is a big step and a great start.”
Before Hurricane Ike struck Sept. 13, John Sealy operated 550 beds and an elite trauma center able to handle injuries from large disasters, including petrochemical accidents.
The hospital beds available Monday will serve women and infants, pediatrics, an acute care unit for elderly patients, a medical-surgical unit, and transplant and critical-care services. The hospital will open with six operating rooms and four procedure rooms.
Friday’s announcement was surprising in light of recent predictions that it would take at least 60 days for the hospital to return to 200 beds.
It was unclear Friday what changed to allow it to reopen weeks ahead of estimates.
A spokeswoman said there had been problems keeping filters clean in building’s ventilation systems. Clogged filters made it impossible to keep air quality in operating rooms up to proper standards, and the hospital couldn’t open without operating rooms.
Monday also is the final day of a massive reduction in force during which as many as 3,000 medical branch employees will lose their jobs. Almost all the cuts were to be at John Sealy Hospital.
Ike flooded 750,000 square feet in buildings on the campus, which is just yards from Galveston Bay. John Sealy lost its blood bank, pharmacy, cafeteria and sterilization facilities, all of which are essential to operating a hospital.
The damage and loss of revenue from having to close John Sealy were among reasons University of Texas System regents cited last week when they approved the massive layoff under way at the campus this week.
Before approving the cuts, the regents said the decision came down to saving the 117-year-old medical branch, which had been losing $40 million a month since the storm.
The medical branch employed about 12,500 people, about 8,000 at the island campus.
It had been burning through its cash reserves to meet a $70 million monthly payroll, officials have said. That figure does not include its contract to treat prisoners, which generates about $20 million in payroll.
About 3,000 medical branch employees, unable to return to perform duties because their workplace was damaged, have been receiving “Adverse Weather Leave” pay.
The medical branch had only $100 million in flood insurance, the most it could obtain, officials said. It had about $160 million in unrestricted reserves, which, at the rate the institution had been losing money, could run out in three months, regents said.
It was unclear Friday how many people would be kept on to run John Sealy or what having it back in operation might mean for the medical branch’s financial position.
