HOUSTON – Since Texas Children’s Hospital announced it laid off 5% of its workforce, KPRC 2 has learned several of those employees include speech, occupational and physical therapists.
The hospital initially announced the layoffs would not impact patient care, but several parents have reached out to KPRC 2 saying that is not true. Many were told that their child will no longer have a speech therapist and have since been placed on a waitlist.
This has been especially concerning for families with children diagnosed with autism, who rely on speech therapy to help with communication.
KPRC 2 Reporter Corley Peel spoke with Benjamin Zimmerman. He said his son, Artie, is diagnosed with autism and is basically non-verbal. Zimmerman said Artie has been seeing significant progress since starting speech therapy at the beginning of the year.
“He was just babbling and screaming before, and now he’s saying short sentences to three-word sentences,” said Zimmerman.
Zimmerman learned last week that Artie’s speech therapist was apart the mass lay off at Texas Children’s Hospital.
“We got a phone call, saying that all of his appointments would be canceled, moving forward, without warning. It was, very disappointing. We waited a really long time for him to get speech therapy. And we had to wait a really long time for him to be assessed and to find somebody available. And even just to get a facility to take him in for speech therapy. So, it was really heartbreaking,” said Zimmerman.
Zimmerman was told Artie has been put on a waitlist for new speech therapist. Artie’s progress in speech therapy is allowing him to start preschool next week where free speech therapy is offered. Without his speech therapist at Texas Children’s, Zimmerman worries about his son regressing.
“My wife and I watch the speech therapist, and we do our best to kind of mimic what she was doing, but we’re not trained. And we’re not professionals,” said Zimmerman.
KPRC 2 reached out to Texas Children’s Hospital, and they sent the following response:
“Texas Children’s has been working tirelessly to assist patients with rescheduling their appointments throughout our system in order to maintain the high standard of care that our patients deserve. Our teams have been conducting continuous outreach to patients, and a dedicated phone number was provided via their MyChart patient portal account to call for assistance.
“As a result of these efforts, we made great strides in the rescheduling process. Texas Children’s expresses our sincerest gratitude to our patients and families for their understanding during this time.”
The day after this story aired, Texas Children’s reached out to Zimmerman letting him know they found a new speech therapist for Artie and booked him an appointment. Zimmerman said he is relieved his son will continue receiving care from Texas Children’s.