Shriners Hospital for Children (Galveston)
Encyclopedia
The Shriners Hospital for Children (Galveston) is a 30-bed non-profit pediatric burn hospital, research, and teaching center located on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch
University of Texas Medical Branch
The University of Texas Medical Branch is a component of the University of Texas System located in Galveston, Texas, United States, about 50 miles southeast of Downtown Houston...

 in Galveston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, USA. Part of a 22-hospital system, it is one of the three Shriner's Hospitals that specialize exclusively in burn care and consists of an intensive care unit
Intensive Care Unit
thumb|220px|ICU roomAn intensive-care unit , critical-care unit , intensive-therapy unit/intensive-treatment unit is a specialized department in a hospital that provides intensive-care medicine...

 with 15 acute beds and a reconstruction and plastic surgery unit with 15 reconstruction beds along with three operating rooms. The hospital is verified as a burn center by the American Burn Association and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
The Joint Commission , formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations , is a United States-based not-for-profit organization that accredits over 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States...

.

History

In 1962 the Shriners of North America allocated $10 million dollars to establish three hospitals that specialized in the treatment and rehabilitation of burned children. After visiting 21 university-based medical institutions, the decision was made to build the first pediatric burn unit on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB). In 1963 the "Shriners Burns Institute" began operation in a seven-bed ward in John Sealy Hospital
John Sealy Hospital
John Sealy Hospital is a hospital that is a part of the University of Texas Medical Branch complex in Galveston, Texas, United States.Sealy opened on January 10, 1890. It was founded by the widow and brother of one of the richest citizens of Texas, John Sealy after his death...

, the teaching hospital for UTMB. In the interim, a specialized Shriner's Burns Hospital was being constructed on land adjacent to the university, that had been donated by the Sealy & Smith Foundation
Sealy & Smith Foundation
The Sealy & Smith Foundation is a charitable foundation incorporated in Texas and based in the island city of Galveston. It was established in 1922 by John Sealy, II and his sister Jennie Sealy Smith with a charter stating a mission to:...

. Work on the hospital was completed in 1966 and the institute moved in shortly after.

By the late 1980s the Shriners began to study the possibility of replacing the aging 1966 hospital. Since their orthopedic children's hospital in nearby Houston was also slated to be replaced, the organization studied combining the two institutions and basing them in the Texas Medical Center
Texas Medical Center
The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world with one of the highest densities of clinical facilities for patient care, basic science, and translational research...

. However the Sealy & Smith Foundation and the Moody Foundation
Moody Foundation
The Moody Foundation is a charitable foundation incorporated in Texas and based in the island city of Galveston. It was chartered in 1942 by William Lewis Moody, Jr...

 both offered substantial financial and logistical support to the organization if it would choose to stay in Galveston. With Galveston foundations willing to cover much of the cost of a new hospital, the Shriners agreed to remain in the island city and renewed their agreement with UTMB. In 1989 construction commenced on a new eight-story hospital tower that would be equipped with 30 beds, three operating rooms, a 163-seat auditorium, research & rehabilitation facilities and a skywalk directly linking the hospital with UTMB's John Sealy and Childrens hospitals. The new hospital was completed and occupied in 1992, followed by Sealy Smith Foundation purchasing the 1966 hospital and donating it to UTMB for use as a research facility.

Hurricane Ike

The hospital was damaged by Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike was the second-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States, the costliest hurricane ever to impact Cuba and the second most active hurricane to reach the Canadian mainland in the Great Lakes Region after Hurricane Hazel in 1954...

 in September 2008. In light of the cost of repairs and the economic downturn, the Shriner's National Hospital Board planned to mothball the facility in the aftermath of the storm, however the Shriners National Convention overturned the decision and voted to repair and reopen the Galveston facility. Prior to the storm, the hospital serviced both burns patients and patients with cleft lip and palate disorders. However when the Galveston hospital reopened in 2009, the decision was made to relocate the cleft lip program to the hospital's sister institution, the Shriners Orthopaedic Hospital for Children
Shriners Hospital for Children (Houston)
The Shriners Hospital for Children is a non-profit, 40-bed pediatric orthopaedic hospital, research and teaching center located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, USA. It is one of 22 hospitals belonging to the Shriners Hospital for Children Network...

 in Houston.

See also


External links

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