Tuesday, April 5, 2016 12:00 amBy UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH

Some are just at the start of their career and others have been at the University of Texas Medical Branch for decades.
This year, more than 1,600 medical branch employees will be recognized for longevity. This year’s Employee Service Day will honor employees who have been here anywhere from five years to 45 years. And more than 600 employees will be recognized for “Going the Extra Mile” in their jobs. The event will be from noon to 1 p.m. April 13 in the Levin Hall Main Auditorium on the Galveston Campus.

Jennie Sealy Hospital

The new Jennie Sealy Hospital on the Galveston Campus is scheduled to start accepting patients Saturday. The majority of units now in John Sealy Hospital, such as the Acute Care for Elders, day surgery, neurosurgery, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, internal medicine, family medicine, orthopedics and trauma will move to Jennie Sealy. The Blocker Burn Unit, labor and delivery, and other units related to babies and mothers and pediatrics will remain in John Sealy Hospital. The Emergency Department remains at its Harborside Drive location.

Public parking changes at UTMB Galveston campus

A reminder that public parking at the medical branch’s Galveston campus has changed. Visitors to hospitals should now park in the hospital garage, located in front of the new Jennie Sealy Hospital. The hospital garage can be approached via Sixth Street from either Harborside Drive or Market Street. Signs will direct visitors to the new parking area. The garage previously used by visitors, located at Eighth and Market streets, has become employee parking. Other public parking areas, including the garage located on Harborside Drive adjacent to the Emergency Room and UTMB Health Clinics and the surface lot in front of the Primary Care Pavilion on Harborside, remain open to patients and visitors.

Of historical note

Some milestones as the medical branch marks its 125th anniversary: In 1995, the medical branch acquired the World Reference Center for Arboviruses that has thousands of virus strains and is the largest collection of its kind in the world. The collection just doesn’t sit on shelves or in freezers. It has helped medical branch scientists develop a simple, affordable diagnostic kit for chikungunya and for other medical branch scientists to jump-start research and testing on the Zika virus.