Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/646815
t m c » p u l s e | m a r c h 2 0 1 6 34 Pioneers of Public Health B y B r i t n i N . R i l e y what would eventually become the Texas Medical Center. "Back then, Baylor was way out in the country," said Kenneth Mattox, M.D., chief of staff and surgeon-in-chief at Ben Taub Hospital and distinguished service professor of the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. "They were hunting deer in the woods around the medical school." In an effort to provide medical experience to his students, DeBakey scheduled a meeting with Ben Taub, L ong before public health care was subsidized by the government, Houstonians set out to offer health services to the underserved in the com- munity through a city- and county-run hospital in 1924. By 1938, the second major city-county hospital named Jefferson Davis Hospital was built on Allen Parkway. In 1948, a young Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., had just been named chairman of the department of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. At that time, there was only one hospital in Our founders had a vision that the hospitals would be here for the underserved. As long as there are medically underserved people in our community, we will be there and continue to grow and continue to meet the needs of the community. — GEORGE MASI President and CEO of Harris Health System THE HARRIS COUNTY HOSPITAL DISTRICT WAS CREATED IN 1966 WITH THE MISSION TO PROVIDE QUALITY HEALTH CARE TO THE UNDERSERVED POPULATION WITHIN HARRIS COUNTY. FIFTY YEARS LATER, THEY ARE STILL HOLDING TRUE TO THAT MISSION. chairman of the Jefferson Davis board, to ask if his students and residents could make rotations on the patients at the hospital. The meeting—originally scheduled to last 15 minutes—turned into five hours and formed a partner- ship that would create the largest public health care system in the third most populous county in the United States. "In the early days of Jefferson Davis, predating Harris Health System, there was no budget for public health care," Mattox said. "If a patient needed a heart valve or a hip prosthesis, Dr. DeBakey would call Mr. Taub and between the two of them, they would pay for it." After a matter of time, it was evident that the hospital did need funding and a switch to single ownership, as opposed to being owned by the city and county. In 1966, the Harris County Hospital District was formed, and it included Jefferson Davis Hospital in addition to another three-year-old hospital named after Ben Taub. The formation of the Harris County Hospital District marked the beginning of the Harris Health System we know today. Shortly after its inception, the Harris Health System began opening outpatient clinics throughout Harris County to extend their services to those unable to travel to the city center. The clinics were formed at the request of Carlos Vallbona, M.D. "Vallbona was an absolute vision- ary," said Brian Reed, M.D., vice chief of staff of Harris Health's Community Health Program and associate pro- fessor at Baylor College of Medicine. "His vision for developing community health centers and teaching future doc- tors in those facilities was revolutionary for the time and paved the way for what Harris Health is today." Over the last 50 years, the Harris Health System has grown to meet the needs of Harris County. In 1989, the second Ben Taub Hospital was built adjacent to the first to meet new build- ing codes. That same year, the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital was built with 328 beds in the northeast corner of Harris County, outside of Loop 610. The hospital replaced an outdated Jefferson Davis Hospital and was also the first Harris Health facility to be staffed outside of Baylor College of Medicine. The former dean of The University of Texas Health Science Center at