Houston-area hospitals to close include the Tomball, Spring, Heights and Bay Area locations of Kindred Hospital, according to the statement. In Dallas, Kindred Hospital Dallas and Kindred Hospital Fort Worth will also close.
“Kindred regularly reviews its portfolio and looks for opportunities to reposition assets so that we can provide services where and when patients need them most,” said Stephanie Madrid, the division vice president of Houston-area operations for Kindred Healthcare, said in the statement. “In order to improve our efficiency in the Houston market, we have decided to consolidate our Houston footprint.”
Kindred hospitals remaining open include the Houston Medical Center, Houston Northwest, Sugar Land and Clear Lake locations as well as Kindred Hospital Dallas Central and Kindred Hospital Fort Worth Southwest, according to the statement.
“In both Dallas and Fort Worth, the hospitals are located in close proximity to each other. By having one hospital in each city instead of two, we believe we can eliminate redundancy, improve efficiency, and concentrate our specialty programs with a goal of improving quality,” Madrid said in the statement.
The shuttering of several Houston and Dallas hospitals will result in hundreds of layoffs, according to information from the Texas Workforce Commission. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers to provide 60-day notice of upcoming facility closures or mass layoffs, according to the TWC, which tracks WARN notifications. Kindred Hospital Spring, Kindred Hospital Fort Worth and Kindred Hospital Dallas filed a notice Jan. 15 disclosing that more than 150 employees would be laid off at each location by March 17.
In Spring, 160 employees will be laid off, according to the notice.
Layoff notices for the other three Houston locations were not included in the TWC’s list of WARN notifications as of publication.
“Employees will be offered positions within the company as available,” Madrid said in the statement. “To date, we have been able to find new positions for about 100 employees from the Houston hospitals we are closing. We expect to retain more of the employees. In addition, we are working with other health care providers in the area to help find opportunities for employees who don’t continue working for Kindred.”
Despite shuttering multiple locations, Kindred will add EksoNR robotic therapy—currently in use at Kindred Hospital Clear Lake—to its remaining Houston hospitals this year, according to the statement. The robotic therapy is used in stroke and spinal cord injury rehabilitation, according to the statement.
“Kindred is committed to the Houston market. We will continue operating [long-term acute care] hospital services as we have for nearly 30 years,” Madrid said in the statement. “Kindred Hospitals of Houston is and will continue to be the market leader for discharges to LTAC hospitals in our community. We fully expect to continue this level of service to the Houston market given the quality of care, patient experience, and innovative solutions we provide to the community.”
