Hospitals in Fort Bend County, TX Provide High Level of Care
Read about investments hospitals in Fort Bend County are making in facilities, equipment and treatments.
Fort Bend County offers a dynamic health-care sector that not only provides residents access to the highest quality care and latest treatments and technology, but also contributes significantly to the community’s economy. The county’s proximity within the Houston metro area has brought primary-care and specialized service locations of some of the nation’s – and world’s – best-known care providers, including the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston Methodist, Memorial Hermann and CHI St. Luke’s. A fast-growing population in Fort Bend County, which has now surpassed 650,000 residents, has attracted physicians, specialists and other medical expertise to Fort Bend County, many of them affiliated with its roster of top-notch acute-care hospitals that includes Houston Methodist Sugar Land, Memorial Hermann Katy, TIRR Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, OakBend Medical Center in Richmond and CHI St. Luke’s Sugar Land Hospital.
The county also offers a number of specialized health-care facilities including an Sugar Land location for the renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center, which is based in Houston and part of the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world. Houston Methodist Sugar Land has consistently ranked as among the best hospitals in Texas on U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals list.
“For more than a decade, our hospital has been an integral part of the Fort Bend County community, and our success begins with a patient-centric operational philosophy that can be seen in everything big and small,” says Kimberly Sprague, Houston Methodist Sugar Land physician relations and marketing coordinator. “That philosophy includes a dedication to provide the widest possible range of services, our significant capital investments in advanced technology, and the convenient design and comfortable decor of our facility.”
Investment in Facilities, Equipment
With the continued population growth in Fort Bend County, officials at Houston Methodist Sugar Land are embarking upon a number of expansion projects to keep up with health-care demand. Those expansions include a six-story patient tower that will be completed in early 2016, adding 104 beds to the hospital’s existing 225.
The hospital has moved its orthopedics and sports medicine and outpatient rehabilitation services to a new 60,000-square-foot building that opened in summer of 2015 at Highway 59 and Sweetwater Boulevard.
“We also expanded on the back of the hospital with a new Heart and Vascular Center scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2015,” Sprague says. “The Heart and Vascular Center is close to our emergency room to ensure the utmost speed in caring for patients suffering from heart attacks.”
Oak Bend Medical Center in Richmond has opened Fort Bend County’s only acute care for the elderly unit, which provides a home-like feel to patients and is staffed with specialists that include a geriatrician, dietitian, physical therapists, pharmacist, case manager, and a niche trained nurse manager. The 243-bed hospital includes a Level lll (Advanced) Trauma Center and was the first Level II nursery in Fort Bend County with 24-hour perinatal coverage. Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, also named one of the best hospitals in Texas by U.S. News and World Report, is also in the midst of an expansion. In 2014, a $93 million project launched to upgrade several aspects of the medical campus, including the addition of a new six-story patient tower that will increase the hospital’s overall bed count from its current 81 to 141 total. The hospital is constructing a 100,000-square-foot medical office plaza next to its new patient tower.
“Sugar Land and the surrounding area continue to grow, and it is our responsibility to respond to that growth, not only with upgraded and expanded facilities, but also with new technology and a higher level of services,” says Greg Haralson, CEO of Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, which opened in 2006 and now has 500 employees. “I’m pleased that we have been named three times as a Top 100 Hospital in the U.S. by Truven Health Analytics, with their latest recognition occurring in March 2015,” Haralson says.
“I am most proud that our hospital focuses on zero harm to patients at all times – we take a very serious approach to that effort.”