Each year, literally thousands of individuals from all walks of life and virtually every region of the planet make the journey into one of the most renowned medical centers in the world – the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Their purpose for coming: to obtain medical attention. In order to get here, however, many of these individuals and their families have to traverse a maze of connecting flights and airports that usually offer very little respite for the ill. That’s not the case at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). In 2005, the Houston Airport System (HAS) and the Texas Medical Center joined forces to alleviate some of the plight experienced by international patients coming into the city through the airports. What resulted was the creation of the International Medical Visitor Service Center at the international arrivals building of IAH.

© Houston Airport System International medical patients from across the globe fequent Houston every day.

Dr. Richard Wainerdi, president of the Texas Medical Center, considers the inauguration of this facility a major benefit for medical patients across the globe.

“More than 10,000 international patients arrived in 2005 with the Texas Medical Center as their destination,” he said. “We know that this facility (is) helpful to our international patients, serving as a meeting place for them (and their) families.”

Since it’s opening in May 2005, the Center has received numerous visitors from all over the world; patients, doctors and business partners. This year alone, the center has received more than 200 visitors, not including their accompanying parties.

The center provides medical patients a comfortable place in which to relax both before and after a long flight. Inside the center, visitors have access to well informed, multilingual HAS special service representatives, a reception area, a lobby with a television and comfortable seating, a play room for children, restrooms, and a computer with internet, among other amenities.

Special service representatives are multilingual employees of the Houston Airport System whose primary job function is providing assistance to international passengers passing through the airports. At IAH alone, these individuals speak some 28 different languages.

The Texas Medical Center institutions that utilize the medical service center at IAH include Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Hermann Hospital, the Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital, The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR), and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau also makes use of the facility.

Doctors at the Texas Medical Center are certain that the facility has already made a big difference. Dr. Kathryn Stream, who’s also the vice president of the medical center, says it has made patients feel more relaxed.

“This program has been responsible for increasing the comfort level of hundreds of thousands of international patients,” she said.

The quiet, restful International Medical Visitor Service Center at IAH is opened every day, 365 days a year from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Copyright © 2006 - Houston Airport System