Houston Methodist Hospital

Hospital in Houston, Texas, USA

Houston Methodist Hospital is the flagship quaternary care hospital of Houston Methodist academic medical center. Located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, Houston Methodist Hospital was established in 1919 during the height of the Spanish influenza epidemic as an outreach ministry of Methodist Episcopal Church. Houston Methodist comprises eight hospitals, an academic institute, a primary care group, and more than 300 locations throughout greater Houston. The hospital has consistently ranked as "One of America's Best Hospitals" according to U. S. News & World Report. The hospital has earned worldwide recognition in multiple specialties including cardiovascular surgery, cancer, epilepsy treatment and organ transplantation. Houston Methodist System changed its official name to Houston Methodist in 2013.

Originally located near downtown Houston, after a $1 million donation from Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen, the hospital relocated to the Texas Medical Center and opened a 300 bed facility in 1951.

Heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey (1908–2008), a faculty member and later Chancellor Emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine, performed the first removal of a carotid artery blockage (1950); the first aorto coronary bypass surgery (1964); the first use of a ventricular assist device to pump blood and support a diseased heart (1966); and some of the first U. S. heart transplants (1968 and 1969) at the hospital. DeBakey also created the first Dacron graft (1953).

In 1976, unusually heavy rains caused more than $20 million in flood related damage in the Texas Medical Center, knocking out power at three hospitals. Six feet of water filled Methodist's basement.

On June 8, 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dropped up to 37 inches of rain on parts of Houston, causing the worst flooding in the city's history up until that time, with serious damage to the Texas Medical Center. About 40 feet of water filled Methodist Hospital's basement and entered the neurosensory building. The hospital discharged 400 patients and did not fully reopen until five weeks after the storm. The flooding caused an estimated $360 million in damage.

Consisting of the existing Texas Medical Center facility and several newly constructed regional hospitals, Houston Methodist was established in 1996 to extend health services beyond the Texas Medical Center and into communities throughout Houston.

Houston Methodist, the University of Houston, and Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University jointly founded the Institute for Biomedical Imaging Science. The institute will create interdisciplinary programs in biomedical imaging and will develop joint training programs to produce basic and applied scientists. Also, beginning in 2019 Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital will launch the EnMed program which is an innovative Engineering Medicine program designed to educate a new kind of physician who will create transformational technology for health care.

U. S. News & World Report routinely names Houston Methodist Hospital as one of its “Best Hospitals,” most recently in 2021 where it was regionally ranked number one in Texas and number 16 nationally. Houston Methodist is nationally ranked in ten specialties and achieved maximum points for superior performance in 17 out of 17 common adult procedures and conditions.

Houston Methodist is an academic medical center affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University, as well as NewYork Presbyterian Hospital. From 1950 to 2004, Houston Methodist was affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. Houston Methodist is a Christian hospital network affiliated with the United Methodist Church by means of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Other affiliations include Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and the University of Houston.

Houston Methodist hospital has required its employees to get the COVID 19 vaccine by June 7, 2021. It was the nation's first hospital system to require its employees to get vaccinated against COVID 19, a disease that, as of June 2021, had caused more than 3.7 million deaths worldwide. As part of the mandate, the hospital system's 26,000 employees were required to get their first COVID 19 shot by June 7, 2021. This wasn't the first vaccine the hospital had mandated. The flu vaccine has been mandated for all Houston Methodist employees since 2009. Ultimately, 99% of employees complied with the hospital's COVID 19 mandate. Less than 0.6% of employees quit or were fired because they refused to get vaccinated, and a small number of employees were exempt or allowed to defer for medical reasons. Prior to taking action on the June 7 vaccination deadline, the hospital first suspended the 178 employees who were not yet vaccinated. During this two week suspension, 25 more employees got vaccinated. Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist, said as healthcare workers, we have "a sacred obligation to care for patients" and that mandating the vaccine was consistent with "our responsibility to keep patients safe". More recently, Dr. Boom has also said he has no regrets about his decision, adding that the mandate was "the best decision we ever made." 117 employees challenged the vaccine requirement by suing the hospital, claiming the vaccine was “experimental”. Many such lawsuits were backed by prominent anti vaxxers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The group of medical workers staged a walk out on June 7. U. S. District Judge Lynn Hughes dismissed the lawsuit on June 12, 2021, calling the plaintiff's allegations that the vaccine was experimental "false" and adding that the hospital's policy doesn't violate state or federal law and isn’t considered “coercion”. On June 22, 2021, 153 Houston Methodist employees either resigned or were terminated for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID 19. Hospitals across the nation have since followed Houston Methodist in requiring COVID 19 vaccination for employees, with about 41% of hospitals nationwide having some sort of mandate in place as of October 2021. As of December 1st, 2023 the hospital back pedaled on this policy ahead of the new state law passed by the Texas state legislature banning the requirement of COVID 19 vaccines by private employers. It should also be noted that the hospital system did not require follow up vaccination for the newer variants of COVID 19.