Clinical Activities at Ben Taub General Hospital
Faculty:
- Kalpalatha (Kay) K. Guntupalli, M.D. - Chief, Pulmonary and Critical Care, BTGH
- Philip Alapat, M.D., DABSM
- Venkata Bandi, M.D.
- Elizabeth Guy, M.D.
- Nicola A Hanania, M.D.
- Antara Mallampalli, M.D., DABSM
- Shyam Subramanian, M.D., DABSM
- Janice L. Zimmerman, M.D. (Affiliated Faculty)
Ben Taub General Hospital is a 578-bed acute-care public hospital operated by the Harris County Hospital District. The hospital district and its facilities serve an urban population base of more than 2.7 million. Ben Taub is a general hospital with a very active level I trauma center. The Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Department at the hospital is directed by Kalpalatha K. Guntupalli, M.D. This service is in charge of the medical intensive care unit, inpatient pulmonary consult service, asthma, general pulmonary, tuberculosis, and sleep disorders outpatient clinics. The hospital cares for many patients with HIV/AIDS, and this area is one of particular interest to the BCM faculty at Ben Taub.
On the Pulmonary Service, one or two assigned fellows work with a designated staff evaluating patients on consultation, with approximately 40-60 consults/month. The bronchoscopy suite is fully furnished with C-arm fluoroscopy and video bronchoscopies. Approximately 400 fiberoptic bronchoscopies, 200 transbronchial needle aspirations, and 15-20 pleural biopsies are performed each year by fellows with staff supervision. The pulmonary function laboratory is a fully functional laboratory averaging 200 pulmonary function tests per month. Cardiopulmonary exercise tests and indirect calorimetry tests are also performed by this laboratory. All tests are initially interpreted by fellows and then reviewed with staff.
The Medical Intensive Care Unit is a 16-bed closed unit. Four resident-intern teams are assigned to the MICU, with a fellow and an attending physician supervising the care of patients. A broad spectrum of critical illnesses, including ARDS, sepsis, respiratory failure, intracranial hemorrhage, CVA, poisoning, GI bleeding, and DKA are seen in the MICU. Procedures include intubation, arterial and central line placement, chest tube placement, bronchoscopy and PA catheter insertion. A fully furnished procedure room equipped with C-arm fluoroscopy helps facilitate performing these procedures.
Pulmonary clinics are held 4 days each week, including separate clinics for asthma and sleep disorders. Ben Taub is the referral facility for city-wide tuberculosis cases. A variety of pulmonary diseases, including tuberculosis, asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease, and lung cancer are seen at the clinic and on consultation. About 450 patients a month are seen in these clinics which are staffed by assigned fellows and faculty. A nurse director works in the clinic to ensure that every effort is made to maintain an efficient clinic and provide continuity of care.