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| Vol. 25, No. 10 |
| June 1, 2003 |
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Hospital District Health Center Now Open Saturdays By JOHN F. MARTINEZ Harris County Hospital District People’s Health Center, a Harris County Hospital District facility located at 6630 DeMoss in Southeast Houston, will operate six days a week beginning June 2 to offset the more than 420 daily patient visits to its cramped facility, becoming the first hospital district health center to operate six days a week. The new workweek, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, replaces the current schedule of Tuesday through Saturday. People’s Director Yolanda Gloria said administration wanted to respond to increased patients, lack of seating area and insufficient parking at the center with an immediate solution. “We want the expansion of hours to help decompress the center’s overcrowding,” she said. “This will also help reduce our patient waiting times and give us a better environment in which to care for our patients.” Last year, staff cared for 108,380 patient visits including 78,031 physician visits, meaning patients actually saw a doctor. To accommodate the expansion, 17 new positions have been added in nursing and pharmacy. “Ideally, we want to spread those 420 daily visits on the extra day, but I know we’ll see more patients overall,” she said. “We project this will generate about 12,000 additional visits a year.” While the effort is meant to ease overcrowding, Gloria admits the increase could become a problem. She’s hopeful plans for a replacement facility will continue. The hospital district’s board of managers approved $1.6 million for a land purchase this year to replace the People’s and MLK facilities. People’s offers services to adult and pediatric patients with specialized programs in dentistry, OB/GYN, podiatry, social services, nutrition and health education.
©2006 Texas Medical Center
E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
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