UTMB Health opens its Clear Lake Campus hospital on March 30
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is reviving the Webster hospital that closed abruptly last year under another operator.
The UTMB Health Clear Lake Campus hospital, which will open on Saturday, March 30, was christened earlier this month with a dedication ceremony attended by more than 500 people.
“Today’s celebration recognizes a journey that began for UTMB late last summer when UTMB Health recognized we could meet an important need for continued access to exceptional health care and services in the Clear Lake community,” UTMB Health System CEO and executive vice president Donna Sollenberger said at the March 20 dedication. “As a five-star academic medical center, it also presented UTMB with an exciting opportunity to advance our education and research missions and expand our health care services in the region while we bring high-quality, comprehensive health care services to patients close to their homes.”
The full-service hospital at 200 Blossom in Webster offers 87 medical/surgical private patient rooms with the capacity to expand to 191 rooms. Also included in the facility are 90 intensive and intermediate care beds, 26 pre-anesthesia and post-anesthesia care beds, 23 private emergency rooms (including three for trauma), eight operating rooms, three interventional suites for cardiac procedures, two interventional radiology/interventional neurology suites and a pair of endoscopy suites.
The hospital is the former Bay Area Regional Medical Center, which employed about 900 people when it shut down suddenly last May. UTMB has staffed the hospital with 427 employees, including new hires and people transferring from other UTMB posts.
Clinics are open already on the campus in a medical office building at 250 Blossom offering adult primary care, pediatric primary care and endocrinology.
The Clear Lake Campus expands the UTMB footprint in the Galveston Bay area, which is home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and includes the cities of Dickinson, Kemah, La Marque, League City, Nassau Bay, Seabrook, Webster and Texas City.
Adding the Clear Lake Campus to the health system’s portfolio comes amid construction of a five-story tower on UTMB’s League City Campus, which opened in 2016. The expansion will add 60 beds to that 37-bed hospital and is expected to be completed in 2020.
In 2016, UTMB opened the 250-bed Jennie Sealy Hospital in Galveston and continues to work to modernize the nearby John Sealy Hospital. UTMB also runs a network of clinics across several counties and operates a hospital at its Angleton Danbury campus in Brazoria County.
