In 2020 and 2021, Harris Health completed a needs assessment and developed a strategic plan focused on its most critical issues:
The system’s aging, deteriorating, and undersized hospital infrastructure must be replaced. LBJ Hospital’s emergency center was built for 48,000 patients/year and now serves 80,000 patients/year. Lack of patient beds creates a backlog in the EC, and patients must receive care in the hallways because there are not enough patient rooms to admit them.
Harris Health must continue to focus on addressing the underlying causes of poor health, including the social determinants of health, to reduce health disparities and improve the wellbeing of Harris County’s indigent men, women, and children.
Primary and specialty care access must be increased; although Harris Health provides 25% of the primary care for indigent individuals, another 27% do not receive care. The gap must be closed and not allowed to continue to increase.
Responding to these needs, the strategic plan is built on six strategic pillars and will make a substantial impact on the quality of care provided in Harris County and the number of people served. The pillars are focused on:
Quality and patient safety, where “zero patient harm” is an expectation.
People, as Harris Health will enhance the patient, employee, and medical staff experience with a culture of respect, recognition and trust.
Coordinated care, as Harris Health will act as one system in managing and delivering services to the public.
Population health management, measurably improving patient health outcomes with high-impact preventive, virtual, and community-based services.
Infrastructure optimization, making substantial investments in facilities, information technology, and telehealth.
Diversity, equity and inclusion, ensuring equitable access to high-quality care for patients, fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace, and cultivating strategic relationships with suppliers and community partners.
The plan will transform the availability and delivery of healthcare in Harris County. The most significant projects will involve the hospitals, diverting primary care from emergency rooms to appropriate care facilities. Further, primary and specialty care services will be enhanced and made available to more of our neighbors who need access to excellent care. The first priority in the plan will be to build a new hospital on the Lyndon B. Johnson campus, which opened more than 30 years ago when Harris County’s population was 2.8 million as compared to the more than 4.7 million who call the county home today. More than 22% of people in Harris County are uninsured and this number keeps rising. Harris Health provides care to the most vulnerable in our community; all patients are triaged and stabilized in a timely manner, but non-acute patients sometimes wait up to 36 hours to be treated.
To learn more about the specific projects, please visit our
Initiatives page.
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