What you need to know
Originally just a single building, officials said the services and capacity were too much for what is now Building A.
“Prior to the expansion, ... demand had outstripped our capacity,” said John Lyle, senior vice president for health care service lines at Kelsey-Seybold.
As a result, work began in 2022 on two other buildings on the campus—buildings B and C. The additions helped expand both capacity and services, officials said.
Building B, which opened in January 2024, offers diagnostics and will eventually offer ambulatory services, while Building C is the campus’s new cancer center, offering patients who live in the Bay Area a clinic closer to home, Lyle said.
Kelsey-Seybold is one of several organizations in the area that, with the services it provides, helps “significantly enhance the overall health and well-being of the local community,” said Rhonda Bell, dean of health and natural sciences at San Jacinto College's central campus.
Kelsey-Seybold officials said they expect more services to come to the Bay Area campus soon.
The impact
Patients are “flooding in” as a result of the expansion, said Aaron Carlson, senior vice president of ambulatory services.
In total, patients receiving specialty care more than doubled from 2022-24, and those receiving primary care grew by nearly 50%, according to data from Kelsey-Seybold. Data projecting into 2026 shows those numbers are expected to continue to rise.
“We’ve seen people pouring in the doors,” Carlson said. “It’s a great expansion area for us.”
That expansion area in part has stemmed from what Kelsey-Seybold officials said was a demand for care close to home. Expansion of both primary care and specialty care have also centralized the health care experience for many in the area.
Zooming in
Prior to the two newest buildings opening up, Carlson said the Bay Area campus often saw a rotation of doctors moving to and from the Texas Medical Center in Houston.
The expansion has allowed Kelsey-Seybold officials to set the Bay Area as the home base for key specialists, Carlson said. That trend continued with the opening of the cancer center and bringing in an oncologist that stays in the Bay Area full time.
“[The services] mirror what we offer at the main campus, so [patients] don’t have to drive to the [Texas Medical] Center,” Carlson said.
Future expansion at the campus will also include more primary care doctors. That should allow for more “coordinated care,” as primary care doctors on-site will be able to refer patients to specialty doctors also based in the Bay Area campus, Carlson said.
Other additions could include adding more specialty doctors, such as interventional cardiologists or orthopedic surgeons, Carlson said.
Some data on employment and patient counts, according to Kelsey-Seybold, at the Bay Area campus from 2022-24 include:
- 68% increase in total patient visits, including primary care up 47% and specialty care up 109%
- 103% increase in total providers listed as full-time equivalent employees, with primary care providers up 52% and specialty care providers up 184%
Bell said she believes the Bay Area, as well as the broader Houston region, offers high-end medical services in many areas, particularly with the help of the Texas Medical Center. Lower death rates related to cancer, as well as coordinated care that help address barriers that certain socioeconomic groups face, have helped outcomes, Bell said.
However, one area Bell said both Houston and the Bay Area have room for improvement is mental health services, which remain limited.
Data from the Kinder Institute shows 246 of the 254 counties in Texas—including Galveston and Harris counties—are currently classified as shortage areas for mental health professionals.
“Health care providers and educational institutions must continue working together to address existing gaps, anticipate emerging health care trends, and support the well-being of our community,” Bell said.
Looking ahead
While the three buildings on the campus are all fully open, except for the ambulatory services within Building B, which is expected to open in early 2026, there is still capacity to fill, Carlson said.
Options to add a PET/CT scanner, which creates detailed imaging of the human body, or an additional linear accelerator to help destroy cancer cells are some of what could be added if demand calls for it.
Meanwhile, Building A is planned to be expanded further to include more primary care services, Carlson said.
Projected demand at the campus could create a need for more specific or specialty doctors, Carlson said.
