Mini-guide to major hospitals

Memorial Hermann-TMC: The home of Dr. Red Duke brings the hotel experience tothe hospital

Memorial Hermann at the Texas Medical Center
Photo by Ester Fant
The campus at Memorial Hermann
Courtesy photo
A Memorial Hermann Life Flight helicopter

Editor's Note: Navigating Houston's big medical buildings can be confusing. To help out, we offer a mini-guide to the major hospitals. Second up: Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.

Memorial Hermann Hospital: The Memorial Herman-Texas Medical Center was the first campus to open in TMC in 1925 after moving from its 200-bed downtown Houston location. The TMC system serves as the teaching hospital for the The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and is only one of two certified Level I trauma centers in the greater Houston area.

History: Never underestimate the power a charitable donation can make. George H. Hermann certainly didn’t. His gift of $2.6 million has come a long way since his 1914 death, and today the system is made up of 11 hospitals and includes Life Flight, the only air ambulance serving Houston and surrounding communities.

Hermann and Rev. Dennis Pevoto had a vision in 1907 of health care for all and with services ranging from transplantation and neuroscience to orthopedics and a burn center, their legacy certainly seems intact.

No. of beds: 3,514

Staff: Most long-time Houstonians smile knowingly when they hear the name “Dr. Red Duke.” Mustached and bespectacled, James Duke was a fixture on television with his medical show but it’s his role as the Medical Director for Memorial Hermann Life Flight that brings the most notoriety to the hospital.

Where to park: Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center is located on the corner of Fannin and Cambridge (formerly known as MacGregor Drive) and offers valet parking at both Cambridge Street and Ross Sterling Drive (at Fannin Street). Garage self-parking is available off Main Street and Fannin Streets and since this is Houston, you can park and then use the air-conditioned skybridge to access the hospital. It's available in the Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza Garage.

Where to eat: There’s plenty of coffee to be consumed at Memorial Hermann-TMC with an Au Bon Pain, Brioche Dorée and of course, Starbucks all right in the hospital. For something more substantial, head to Café Hermann (entrees, pizza, grill, salad bar) and The Corner Bistro in Café Hermann (frozen yogurt, hot entrees.)

Amenities: Patients get all the perks, and well they should. Memorial Hermann-TMC has an extensive concierge service that includes arranging for personal errands, beauty appointments and delivering special in-room meals from area restaurants.

The upscale Signature Suites and Services recreates a hotel experience inside the hospital with Egyptian cotton sheets. Pyxis PatientStation, a bedside entertainment system, allows patients to watch expanded cable TV channels and videos, surf the Internet, send and receive e-mail, and explore healthcare information

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Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates swipe nearly $2B in packages from Texas homes this year

Porch Pirate Person in Glasses Steals Packages

Getty Images

The Grinch isn't the only one stealing Christmas these days.

’Tis the season for porch pirates. If past trends are an indicator, the Grinch will swipe close to $2 billion worth of packages delivered to Texas households this year, with many of those thefts happening ahead of the holiday season.

An analysis of FBI and survey data by ecommerce marketing company Omnisend shows porch pirates stole more than $1.8 billion worth of packages from Texans’ porches last year. Porch pirates hit nearly one-third of the state’s households in 2024, according to the analysis.

Omnisend’s analysis reveals these statistics about porch piracy in Texas:

30.1 million residential package thefts in 2024.
An average household loss of $169 per year.
An annual average of 2.9 package thefts per household.

“Most stolen items are cheap on their own, but add them up, and retailers and consumers are facing an enormous bill,” says Omnisend.

Another data analysis, this one from The Action Network sports betting platform, unwraps different figures regarding porch piracy in Texas.

The platform’s 2025 Porch Pirate Index ranks Texas as the state with the highest volume of residential thefts, based on 2023-24 FBI data.

Researchers at The Action Network uncovered 26,293 reports of personal property thefts at Texas residences during that period. The network’s survey data indicates 5 percent of Texas residents had a package stolen in the three months before the pre-holiday survey.

The Porch Pirate Index calculates a 25.8 percent risk of a Texas household being victimized by porch pirates, putting it in the No. 5 spot among states with the highest risk of porch piracy.

The Action Network included online-search volume for terms like “package stolen” and “porch pirates.” Sustained spikes in these searches suggest that “people are actively looking for guidance after something has happened. Search trends serve as an early warning system, revealing emerging-risk areas well before annual crime statistics are released,” the network says.

Tips to avoid being a victim
So, how do you prevent porch pirates from snatching packages that end up on your porch? Omnisend, The Action Network and Amazon offer these eight tips:

Closely monitor deliveries and quickly retrieve packages.
Schedule deliveries for times when you’ll be home.
Use delivery lockers or in-store pickup when possible.
Ask delivery services to hide packages in out-of-sight spots outside your home.
Install a visible doorbell camera or security camera.
Coordinate deliveries with neighbors or building managers if you’ll be away from your home when packages are supposed to arrive.
Request that delivery services hold your packages if you can’t be home when they’re scheduled to come.
Illuminate the path to your doorstep and keep porch lights on.

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