Photo courtesy of Britni Riley

Harris Health System welcomed its staff, nurses, doctors, patients and patrons on Friday to the ceremonial ribbon cutting of The Specialty Clinics at Ben Taub Tower. Conveniently located next door to Ben Taub Hospital, the newly renovated tower is now home to 20 specialty clinics that previously occupied the second floor of Ben Taub Hospital.

“We are relocating clinics, but that greatly understates what we are really doing,” said Michael Gardner, M.D., executive vice president and administrator at Harris Health, as he recalled seeing “hundreds and hundreds of patients” sitting in a hallway waiting to be seen at The Specialty Clinics.

“This is the final step of taking a very antiquated, very difficult working environment for our doctors and nurses, very unpleasant experience for our patients, to a beautiful, modern, patient friendly facility,” Gardner said.

Ben Taub Tower, also known as the “old Ben Taub,” has needed a new purpose for decades. Built in the ‘70s, old Ben Taub fell out of compliance in the late ‘80s for a lack of windows and narrow hallways, which forced Harris Health System to build the current Ben Taub Hospital building. The tower has been unoccupied since 1990.

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