Tristan is just one
of the many thousands of patients who
each year benefit from UTMB’s blend of expertise, compassion and determination. The university is
working to build a future in which everyone has access to the kind of advanced care available here.
With recent expansions, UTMB
now has 80 clinics at more
than 40 sites on Galveston
Island and the mainland. This growth
complements existing services in the
community and ensures that residents
and community physicians in the rapidly
growing Houston/Galveston Bay Area have
convenient access to UTMB’s expertise in
women’s and children’s health, geriatrics,
burn care, transplants, diabetes and
metabolic disorders, neurological diseases,
and ear, nose and throat conditions, among
other areas of clinical excellence.
Tristan is just one of the many thousands of patients who
each year benefit from UTMB’s blend of expertise, compassion and determination. The university is
working to build a future in which everyone has access to the kind of advanced care available here.
Last year saw the return of UTMB’s Level 1
Trauma Center status—a major milestone
for the university and for the Southeast
Texas region that depends on these critical
services.
The DaVinci Robotic Surgery System represents UTMB’s significant investment in minimally invasive surgery, which greatly benefits the health of the patient while reducing costs associated with hospitalization and lost work time. UTMB currently employs the system in general, urologic, gynecologic, gynecologic oncology and cardiothoracic surgery cases.
Island clinics are moving back to the
renovated Primary Care Pavilion, and
the first phase of the John Sealy Hospital
modernization—largely funded by The
Sealy & Smith Foundation—is almost
complete. Our patients are now benefiting
from a remodeled Comprehensive
Maternity Center, as well as new patient
rooms on the renowned Blocker Burn Unit
and our orthopaedic/trauma and general
surgery floors. The UTMB Health Children’s
Hospital—newly redesigned within John Sealy
Hospital—provides a full range of pediatric
acute and intensive care.
Among UTMB’s new mainland sites is the Multispecialty Center & Stark Diabetes Clinic, a 45,000-square-foot facility that consolidates several former locations into one convenient, technologically advanced, healing environment for patients.
Construction will soon begin on the
$438 million Jennie Sealy Hospital, which
will expand our inpatient capacity while
providing the optimal healing environment
for patients and their families; an advanced,
highly adaptable work environment for
our faculty and staff; and a real-world
“classroom” for our students. And work
has begun on the adjacent Clinical Services
Wing, which will provide resilient space for
critical hospital support services such as the
pharmacy, blood blank, sterile processing
and kitchen.
In addition to significantly
upgrading and expanding our
facilities to improve access and
quality, we are building the systems and
processes needed to drive progress in
patient care delivery.
Implemented in all UTMB clinics in
2011, MyChart gives patients the power
of secure online access to their medical
records and physicians, and helps them
become full partners in their health
care.
New rooms created in Phase 1 of the John Sealy Hospital modernization are double their previous size, allowing ample space for the most current technology, for student education and for the comfort of families staying with patients.
Another major initiative, UTMB
Connect, will ensure a “one patient, one
record” approach to care and result in
streamlined appointment scheduling
and registration, full compliance with
new federal guidelines on documenting
diagnosis and treatment, and a single,
easy-to-understand bill for all services
provided to a patient.
UTMB is expanding its focus on safety
by furthering a culture of trust within
the Health System and throughout the
university. In a culture of trust, mistakes
are acknowledged so that everyone
can learn a better way, managers focus
15
on improving processes, everyone is
held accountable for ensuring safety
and compliance within their work
areas, and employees at every level feel
comfortable speaking up when they see
ways to improve.
Although the health care landscape
continues to evolve, UTMB’s vision
for the future is clear: equitable access
to the most effective care possible
throughout our region, state and nation.
We have piloted numerous innovative
community-based programs that are
improving the health of patients we
serve directly and providing models
of care for others to emulate. We are
collaborating with other area providers
to reform the region’s health care
delivery system. And, as part of a broadbased
Brookings Institution initiative,
we are contributing to the national
dialog on improving health care quality
and reducing costs.
Through strategic growth and continued
innovation, UTMB holds true to its
tradition of improving the health of
Texas while defining the very future of
health care for the state and nation.
UTMB delivers 7,000 new Texans each year and helps improve the health of their families.