This weekend, Brackenridge Hospital closed its doors after more than 130 years in Austin. Before that, though, they spent Sunday shuttling the hospital’s remaining patients to the brand new Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas, which is located just across the street.
Angel Torres Carmona, a nurse, was among the 1,500 hospital staff members helping move the 100-plus patients.
“Of course it’s a lot of preparation,” Carmona said. “We have a command center that is helping to guide every floor, every unit, every patient from this place to the other place.”
And of course it’s not just the patients moving to new digs. The entire medical and administrative staff is also moving to the new teaching hospital.
“I am excited,” Carmona said. “It’s bittersweet because I love this place and institution, but this new hospital has so much to give.”
Lillian Mabee was among the patients moved on Sunday. She told reporters she was excited to be part of the big day. Mabee, who is homeless, had come into the hospital to treat an infection. She says clinic staff at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless directed her to Brackenridge.
“They are the ones who caught my high temperature and they are the ones that suggested a hospital and that’s when they suggested Brackenridge,” she said.
Brackenridge had been treating the city’s indigent population for more than a century. Seton officials say the new teaching hospital will carry on that mission, while also providing a testing ground for new ways to provide care to patients in the area.
