Located in the first-floor corridor connecting John Sealy Hospital to UTMB Health Clinics on the Galveston Campus, the Care Closet was initially funded by the UTMB President’s Cabinet and is the first resource of its kind located on-site in a hospital in the Houston-Galveston region.

Five months after officially announcing it had signed a 15-year agreement to lease the facility formerly known as Bay Area Regional Medical Center, UTMB opened its new Clear Lake Campus Hospital on March 30.

Favour Onwukwe, a nurse in a Hospital Galveston facility known as 7A, is just one of the 3,000 CMC employees who provides constitutionally mandated levels of care to more than two-thirds of the state’s incarcerated offenders.

Defined as patients who return to the hospital within 30 days of their most recent discharge, 30-day readmissions at UTMB have been on the decline recently—boasting a 14.5 percent drop over the last two years. This notable trend has saved the institution nearly $2 million and was made possible in part by the development of programs and operational measures identified through the use of the Readmissions Explorer Application within UTMB Discover--an enterprise data warehouse and analytical toolkit that, through the use of various applications within it, aggregates real-time, accurate data generated by UTMB’s mission areas.

Over the past couple of years, UTMB has changed how it approaches the delivery of care to patients, particularly as it relates to improving access. That work was recognized in October when UTMB’s Ambulatory Operations— medical care provided on an outpatient basis in primary and specialty care clinics—was ranked 12th of 48 academic medical centers nationally that took part in the FY18 Vizient Ambulatory Quality and Accountability survey and achieved four-star performance.

Compassionate care delivered by UTMB health care professionals helped save a blood clot patient's life.

UTMB’s Ambulatory Care Management Team is always looking for ways to better serve patients. So when Information Services approached the team about participating in a video visits pilot program, they knew this was something that could benefit patients—especially those who live in rural areas.

While continuous improvement through lifelong learning has been a key part of UTMB’s culture for years, this tenet comes to life at the Sealy and Smith Laboratory for Surgical Training, Assessment and Research (LSTAR).

The focus on providing Best Care extends well beyond the unit or clinic setting, as every employee contributes—directly or indirectly—to providing top-notch care to patients across our institution.

Although medical imaging technology is crucial to the timely diagnosis and management of many conditions, UTMB radiologist Dr. John Heymann admits: The volume of imaging tests has gotten out of hand.

When it comes to opioid addiction, many people don’t see it coming. It can happen to anyone, anywhere—and quickly spiral out of control. “I’ve had patients who had a surgical procedure and three weeks later were addicted to heroin,” said Dr. Edythe Harvey, an addiction psychiatrist at UTMB.

Ruth Perez remembers the days when she could hardly get out of bed because of the headaches and shortness of breath. Always tired, she could hardly do a thing because her body couldn’t handle the exertion.

Thousands. That’s how many different laboratory tests physicians may choose from when diagnosing, screening or monitoring a patient. It’s a vast menu—including common tests that measure glucose levels or specialty tests that screen for Zika virus. However, growing evidence shows that just because a test is available, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to have it done.

With just days to spare, UTMB leaders and participating health care providers were informed that a program providing funding for critical services for underserved patients will be extended another five years.

When Dr. Abe DeAnda trained in cardiac surgery years ago, he was given some dangerous advice. “There were a lot of old rules of thumb such as, ‘If you need to give one (unit of blood), give two,’” recalled DeAnda, who is now professor and chief of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at UTMB. “Every resident memorized that about blood transfusions. It was probably the most dangerous rule you could learn in medicine.”

UTMB liver transplant recipient celebrates 10th wedding anniversary after a journey from near-death to new life.

On any given day, all 110 acute care beds in UTMB Hospital Galveston are full. While some patients are preparing for discharge, new patients are brought in by bus, ambulance and vans from prison units all over the state. As the state’s aging prison population requires increased medical care, the maximum security hospital on UTMB’s Galveston Campus often faces a challenge: there aren’t enough beds to go around.

When Irene Slovak, who was an otherwise healthy 74-year-old woman, began experiencing stomach pain and fatigue, she knew something wasn’t right.

The Texas City Primary and Specialty Care Clinic and the Dickinson Regional Maternal and Child Health Program (RMCHP) clinics are happy to be back doing what they do best—serving patients and the community.

UTMB’s 10th Annual Preemie Reunion on Oct. 21 was the first time Wendy Lentino was able to take her baby, Liliana, out in public. “Lily finally gets to experience things that most of us take for granted, like the sun shining and the wind blowing,” said Lentino.