Specialized hospital in west Houston to close

The Select Specialty Hospital long-term acute care facility in west Houston will close permanently in June, laying off all 175 full- and part-time employees, a spokesman for the parent company confirmed Friday.

“We hope to accomplish this closing with the least possible disruption to the lives of our employees and the community,” John Saich, executive vice president and chief human resources officer for the company, said in an April 4 letter to the Texas Workforce Commission.

The hospital specialized in treatment of chronic lung disease and other respiratory ailments including pneumonia, as well as brain and spinal cord injuries and stroke.

It will be the second Select Specialty Hospital in Houston to shutter in the past year. Last May, the Mechanicsburg, Pa., parent company announced it was closing its hospital in the Heights, laying off 222 people. At the time it said the remaining two hospitals in the city, including the one in west Houston, would remain open.

A third local Select Specialty Hospital, in the Texas Medical Center, is unaffected by the closures, Edwin Bodensiek, a spokesman for Select Medical Company, said Friday.

However, the Medical Center facility is part of an unrelated swap arrangement with Kindred Healthcare.

Under that pending agreement between the two hospital chains, the ownership of the TMC location hospital along with Select Specialty hospitals in San Antonio, Indianapolis, Denver and Colorado Springs will shift to Kindred. In exchange, Select will acquire hospitals in Atlanta, Cleveland and Mishawaka, Ind.

Bodensiek said the swap arrangement, scheduled to be com-

pleted by the end of the year, is “totally separate” from the closures in Houston. It means his company will no longer have a hospital presence in the city.

He said the decisions were part of larger plans “to change our footprint” in Houston. The medical company will continue to operate physical therapy clinics in Houston, Bodensiek added.

While not unprecedented, a trade of facilities between hospital chains is rare, he said. The plan is scheduled to be made final by year’s end.

Kindred Healthcare did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

Bodensiek said his company would work with laid-off employees to find them positions within the chain.