HOUSTON – A big congratulations to Dr. Kenneth Mattox, the chief of staff at Ben Taub General Hospital, who announced he will be retiring from his position there soon.
Dr. Mattox started at Baylor College of Medicine as a medical student in 1960. According to Baylor, he actually never interviewed anywhere else because he felt they lined up with his religious upbringing.
Back then, emergency medicine really did not exist, but his story is that among fellow students, they wrote out on the back of a napkin their vision of a trauma hospital. This vision ultimately shaped what Ben Taub is today.
During a 2018 interview, Dr. Mattox explained the hospital’s history of training military surgeons, a legacy that lives on today.
“They would take their cellphone, put it into the wound and say ‘what do I do with this kind of injury?’” Dr. Mattox explained.
His advice to doctors is written in several books, but Top Knife is the one he says is useful among military doctors.
Another passion he has consistently been outspoken on is ensuring the best quality of healthcare for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.
“They deserve the best of care, they deserve equal if not better results than the people who pay a lot of money for private hospitalization. So, we’re dedicated to providing care for those people who don’t have a choice,” Dr. Mattox said.
Under his guidance, the hospital has done that while discovering new operations, creating new treatments and gained the community’s trust as a go-to emergency room.
“In the last five years, we’ve been the top three... of all the trauma centers in the United States!” Dr. Mattox said. “I’m proud of that.”
Dr. Mattox still plans to teach at Baylor College of Medicine, put on conferences and write books. So, his work is not over yet.
“We must always build on the successes of the past and discover those glitches of the past that need to be changed,” he said. “We will get through this COVID, we will find a better way to finance healthcare... and I am so proud to live in Houston where together we work. Harvey may come through but the industries of town, the television stations of town, we all come together to take care of our people. Christmas time is coming and some people have a very hard way. You find every weekend, food given out by innumerable different services. We care for our people and that’s a wonderful place to live.”
At a Board of Directors meeting Thursday, the board surprised him by announcing the new surgical suites at Ben Taub will be named in his honor.