Townsen Memorial Hospital was up and running for six weeks before Hurricane Harvey dropped more than a trillion gallons of water on Harris County last fall.
The hospital, which is located at the intersection of FM 1960 and Wilson Road, suffered more than $7 million in damages to equipment and the building when a foot and a half of water rushed into the facility.
“We were operating for six weeks and then Hurricane Harvey came along,” CEO Steve Winnett said. “That was a big blow, and up to this point, we’ve had to come out of pocket to fix everything in this hospital. Insurance is – we’re still in fights with them to pay anything. So we lost millions of dollars of equipment.”
TMH was closed for nearly a year before it reopened Aug. 20.
Today, the hospital provides a variety of specialized services, such as OB/GYN, gastric bypass surgery, podiatry, plastic surgery, urology and orthopedic surgery. In addition, TMH offers spinal surgery, an in-house pharmacy and pain management treatments.
However, a positive that emerged from the situation is that it allowed TMH to update its equipment and renovate the building, which needed an upgrade from its former life as Humble Surgical Hospital. TMH purchased the Humble Surgical Hospital out of bankruptsy, Winnett said.
TMH purchased state-of-the-art equipment for its catheterization laboratory and operating rooms, he said.
“Our surgical tables. Our cath lab equipment. The surgical beds. Everything that was down on the (floor) — it just got ruined,” Winnett said. “And we also wanted to remodel. So what Harvey did do is it pushed us to get state-of-the-art equipment in our ORs. The other hospitals in the area don’t have that type of equipment … (Now we do) thanks to Harvey.”
TMH is still growing.
The hospital reopened Aug. 20 with seven exam rooms. That number of exam rooms will be expanded to 15 this fall. The hospital also began construction on a 36,000 square foot addition to the medical office building next door, which could deliver early next year, Winnett said.
But the company is also appreciative of milestones in the present. TMH saw its first emergency room patient on Aug. 26, which brought excitement to the staff, Winnett said.
“It’s important for us to let people know that they don’t have to travel to the (Houston) Medical Center to get the best possible care because we’re actually bringing those surgeons and physicians here,” he said.