40 patients admitted to NRG Arena 'medical shelter' to ease hospital overcrowding after Beryl, officials say

HOUSTON — Acting Texas Gov. Dan Patrick spoke Tuesday about a medical shelter at NRG Arena. As of Wednesday, officials said it was operational and dozens of patients had been admitted.

The facility was set up for 250 patients ready to be discharged from area hospitals but unable to go home because of power outages. Many of these hospitals became “overcrowded” after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to millions across Southeast Texas, officials said. 

“The hospitals were backed up because they weren’t able to discharge many patients to homes that didn’t have power so that backed up the whole system,” Patrick said.

In a news conference, Texas Department of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd further explained the situation that led officials to deploy the shelter.

“City of Houston told us they had an ambulance shortage because all of their ambulances emergency department waiting to offload patients,” Kidd said. “Some of them had been sitting there for three-plus hours.”

Significant power outages at the Texas Medical Center led to even further setbacks, according to a spokesperson for the Houston Office of Emergency Management.

Houston OEM told KHOU 11 that medical center outages after Beryl made it difficult for hospitals to access to the computer systems needed to process patient discharges. 

On Wednesday evening, OEM officials also confirmed that 40 patients had been admitted to the medical shelter, and 70 to 75 patients were in a transfer process to be admitted.

In a statement, the Southeast Regional Advisory Council (SETRAC) explained that patients discharged to NRG Arena could come from hospitals across the Southeast Texas region and there will be strict criteria for admission. KHOU 11 News is working to find out what that criteria is.

“As of yesterday, there were about 29 of those hospitals that were “internal disaster” so they could be coming from anywhere,” Kidd said. “It will depend on the physician and the patient.”

We’re told the medical shelter had 100 beds and will expand to 250 by Wednesday evening. The facility will be staffed with physicians, nurses, mid-level practitioners and EMTs.

“It’s in the patient’s best interest not to send them to a place that doesn’t have power, that they can’t keep their medications refrigerated,” Kidd said.

The center is not open to the public. Officials said patients must be discharged from a hospital to go to the NRG Arena medical shelter. No one would be brought to the shelter directly from an emergency, they said.