The Shriners Children's Texas is a 30-bed non-profit pediatric burn hospital, research, and teaching center located on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, US. Part of a 22-hospital system, it is one of the three Shriner's Hospitals that specialize exclusively in burn care and consists of an intensive care unit with 15 acute beds and a reconstruction and plastic surgery unit with 15 reconstruction beds along with three operating rooms and beds for orthopedic and spine care. The hospital is verified as a burn center by the American Burn Association and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In 2012, the hospital joined the Texas Medical Center as its 50th member institution. History In 1962 the Shriners of North America allocated $10 million to establish three hospitals that specialized in the treatment and rehabilitation of burned children. After visiting 21 university-based medical institutions, the decision was made to build the first pediatric burn unit on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB). In 1963 the "Shriners Burns Institute" began operation in a seven-bed ward in John Sealy Hospital, the teaching hospital for UTMB. In the interim, a specialized Shriner's Burns Hospital was being constructed on land adjacent to the university, that had been donated by the Sealy & Smith Foundation. Work on the hospital was completed in 1966 and the institute moved in shortly after. By the late 1980s the Shriners began to study the possibility of replacing the aging 1966 hospital. Since their orthopedic children's hospital in nearby Houston was also slated to be replaced, the organization studied combining the two institutions and basing them in the Texas Medical Center. However the Sealy & Smith Foundation and the Moody Foundation both offered substantial financial and logistical support to the organization if it would choose to stay in Galveston. With Galveston foundations willing to cover much of the cost of a new hospital, the Shriners agreed to remain in the island city and renewed their agreement with UTMB. In 1989 construction commenced on a new eight-story hospital tower that would be equipped with 30 beds, three operating rooms, a 163-seat auditorium, research & rehabilitation facilities and a skywalk directly linking the hospital with UTMB's John Sealy and Children's hospitals. The new hospital was completed and occupied in 1992, followed by Sealy Smith Foundation purchasing the 1966