Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center

BSL

Location within Texas Medical Center

Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center is the private adult hospital of the Baylor College of Medicine jointly owned with CHI St. Luke’s Health. The medical staff at the hospital includes full-time Baylor faculty, as well as community physicians. The hospital is currently located at the former St. Luke’s Medical Center, located on Bertner Street in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. The hospital is an 850-bed institution that is also a clinical partner of the Texas Heart Institute.

History

The hospital was originally chartered as a 180 bed, non-profit, general hospital in 1945. The charter increased to 300 beds within the first decade, and eventually to 850 beds. In 1962, the hospital affiliated with the Texas Heart Institute (THI). In 1997, the hospital was established as the flagship hospital for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, as part of the non-profit St. Luke's Episcopal Health System (SLEH). In 2004, SLEH entered into an agreement with the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) to become its primary adult teaching hospital.^[1] In 2013, the hospital was acquired as part of the Catholic Health Initiatives $2 billion purchase of the St. Luke's Episcopal Health System. The health system was renamed as CHI St. Luke's Health System, and the flagship hospital renamed as St. Luke's Medical Center.^[2]

In January 2014, BCM and CHI St. Luke's Health agreed to be joint owners of St. Luke's Medical Center. The hospital was accordingly renamed as the Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center (TMC campus). The original Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center building on the McNair campus—unfinished and used primarily as an outpatient center at the time—was also agreed on to become a part of the joint ownership, and will be called the Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center (McNair campus) once completed, expected to open in 2015 initially with 250 beds. The McNair campus also has an outpatient component, which Baylor owns and operates independently. Wayne Keathley serves as the current president of the Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center.^[2]

Services

Advanced treatment programs offered at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center include orthopedics, oncology, urology, digestive disorders and neurosciences. Baylor physicians conduct research at the hospital, including running clinical trials while offering early access to experimental treatments and other resources.^[2]

The hospital in conjunction with the Texas Heart Institute has performed more than 100,000 open heart procedures, more than 200,000 cardiac catheterizations, and more than 25,000 cardiology interventions as an alternative to bypass surgery since its inception. THI also holds the world's largest cardiac catheterization laboratory, with more than 10,000 diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed each year,^[2] and is consistently ranked as one of the leading institutions in the country for cardiovascular care.^[3] Baylor physicians also provide care at the Transplant Center, one of the largest in the world, where more than 1,000 heart transplantation's have been performed since 1975.^[2]

The O'Quinn Medical Tower

The O'Quinn Medical Tower, located at 6624 Fannin Street in Houston, is a glass skyscraper structure within the TMC campus location of Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center. Its presence makes the hospital the world's third tallest hospital as well as the nation's tallest hospital at 477 feet (145 meters). It was completed in 1990, and consists of 29 stories. The architectural style is postmodernism. The two spires atop the building are made of aluminum and serve only as decorative features. A 9-story, 1,350 space parking garage was incorporated at the base into the building's design.

External links

• Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center

References

• The O'Quinn Medical Tower at St. Luke's Hospital at Emporis.com