HOUSTON – Next month, Harris County Commissioners will vote on whether to include a $2.5 billion bond on the November election ballot. It would go to Harris Health Systems to transform several area hospitals and clinics.
In northeast Houston on Lockwood Drive and Kelly Street is what April Dailey would call a broken lifeline—- or Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital.
“It’s so confined, it’s so packed,” she said.
It’s also one of her only options.
“That hospital itself works a lot better for me, you know, being as though I’m a single mom, low income,” Dailey said.
But as a level three trauma center with limited resources, she said getting prompt care can prove difficult.
“I waited almost 24 hours one day,” she recalled.
When she had a medical emergency last week, she had to travel 10 miles across Houston to Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center. It’s one of only two level-one trauma centers in Harris County, the second being at Ben Taub Hospital next door.
“I did what I had to do,” Dailey said.
August 17 is when commissioners will vote on the bond.
“When I say increase capacity, I’m talking about additional hospital beds, but on top of that, obviously then we need more staff, more diagnostics, more everything else,” Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, CEO of Harris Health Systems said.
He said $400 million would go toward expanding Ben Taub, $500 million would go toward community clinics, as well as adding at least three new clinics in east Harris County, northwest and southwest Harris County, based on areas of need.
“Really move more and more towards health promotion and disease prevention,” Porsa said.
The final $1.6 billion would go toward rebuilding LBJ Hospital, making it the first level one trauma center serving the northeast corridor. The existing facility will be refurbished into a mental health hospital.
As for how much this would cost taxpayers, Harris Health estimates the owner of a $300,000 home would pay around $6 more a month in property taxes.
“We want to keep the care close to the community, close to where people live,” Porsa said. “That’s our goal.”