Shriners Hospital officials hope to reopen soon

By Bronwyn Turner,Correspondent November 22, 2008
GALVESTON —Shriners Hospital for Children-Galveston should reopen at full capacity by the start of the new year without laying off any employees, officials said.

Rumors of the demise of the nationally known burn treatment center are dead wrong, officials said.

“The message we want to put out is that we were hurt badly, but we are not going away,” said John Swartwout Jr., administrator. “With everything happening to UTMB, we want our folks and the community to know, we’re coming back.”

Swartwout’s comments came during large layoffs of University of Texas Medical Branch employees as the John Sealy Hospital downsizes because of hurricane damage. But the layoffs do not mean closing the medical branch’s burn treatment program or its partnership with Shriners Hospital in treating burned children, Swartwout said.

“The fact that UTMB is downsizing has left many people within Shriners and the community skeptical about whether or not we are coming back,” Swartwout said, speaking by phone from his temporary office in the boardroom of Shriners Hospital for Children in Houston. He referred to the displaced staff and patients there as “a hospital in exile.”

“Well, we are coming back,” he said. “The board of trustees has extended the hazard pay — they call it disaster pay — until Jan. 1. We fully expect to be back and functioning by that date.”

Shriners Hospital for Children-Galveston is one of only four burn specialty units in the Shriners hospital system. It’s ranked among the best pediatric burn hospitals in the world.

The hospital at 815 Market St. in Galveston opened in 1996, guided by Dr. Truman Blocker, a plastic surgeon and burns specialist who established the medical branch’s burn unit. Shriners Hospital contracts with the medical branch for doctors and other medical services.

More than 18,000 children from across the country and the world have been treated in the hospital, which includes an intensive care unit with 15 beds, a reconstruction and plastic surgery unit with 15 beds, three operating rooms, a multi-bed recovery room, clinics and a large outpatient population. The hospital employs 325 people.

In 2007 alone, the hospital recorded 1,557 admissions, 1,602 surgeries, 12,523 in-house clinic visits and 1,296 patients seen in outreach clinics. Patients do not pay.

The hospital’s operating budget of about $34 million comes from an endowment for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Fast Evacuation

The Galveston hospital was operating at full capacity the week of Sept. 12, when forecasts of Hurricane Ike’s dangers prompted evacuation. Six critically injured patients were flown by chartered Lear jets to a sister hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, accompanied by staff and parents. Several more children were sent to a sister hospital in Shreveport, La., along with parents and staff.

A group of 17 residential outpatients, children who had temporarily moved to Galveston for daily specialized outpatient treatments, were sent to a shelter set up for them at a middle school on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station.

Within 12 hours, by the night of Sept. 11, the evacuation was completed. When Hurricane Ike arrived, a surge of more than two feet of water swept through the first floor of the hospital, and then receded in a matter of hours.

Major utilities were no longer functioning because of water damage. Emergency generators had shut down. Electrical switchgear was underwater. Fire pumps and fire alarms were dead. Medial gas pumps were down.

“So unlike Hurricane Rita, where we turned around and came back in a few days, it became painfully apparent we were not gong to come back any time soon,” Swartwout said.

Evacuated patients were admitted to Shriners Burn Hospitals in Cincinnati and Boston. Residential outpatients were brought from the College Station shelter to Houston Shriners Hospital for Children.

Temporary Location

Many of the Galveston Shriners Hospital staff continue to care for patients in Houston.

Administrative staff is set up in the boardroom. A sign taped on the door reads “Shriners Hospital-Galveston North.”

Weekly “town hall meetings” are held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in La Marque to keep staff updated. A distribution center has been established for employees in need of food, clothing and household items.

“One of the things that surprised me is the spirit of our employees, the spirit of family that our employees have exhibited to one another,” Swartwout said. One group of employees, calling itself Muscles on Demand — the MOD Squad — formed a cleanup crew, helping fellow employees with cleanup and repairs on their homes.

Repairs are continuing in Galveston. The hospital will reopen with the first floor lobby and office area still undergoing remodeling. Treatment facilities are located on upper floors.

“We are all itching to get back to work,” Swartwout said. “All of the things that need to be fixed are in process. It’s complicated, and it takes time.

“But it’s going to happen very soon. I’m fully confident of that.”