GALVESTON — After two false starts, the island’s John Sealy Hospital at the University of Texas Medical Branch quietly opened 200 beds to the general public Monday.

The medical branch announced the hospital’s opening twice since Hurricane Ike flooded it Sept. 13, and twice has had to halt most operations because of air and water quality problems.

Those problems had been solved, but the experience kept officials from trumpeting Monday’s opening, they said.

“Both times were disheartening for patients and staff alike, and we didn’t want to risk disappointing people again,” said Karen Sexton, interim executive vice president and CEO of Health Systems.

“We did take the opportunity to announce yesterday’s opening internally and to congratulate the faculty and staff involved once we knew it was ‘all sytems go.’”

Its obstetrics and neonatal unit reopened in October.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice Hospital, where inmates receive medical care, also opened in October with 32 beds.

The hospital this week reopened pediatrics, an acute care unit for elderly patients, a medical-surgical unit and transplant and critical-care services. It also opened the cardiac catheterization laboratory, hemodialysis, the burn Intensive Care Unit, the general research center, the Texas Transplant Center and its pharmacy, which has been moved to the fifth floor.

The hospital attempted to reopen Nov. 24 with much more fanfare. But within hours stopped admitting patients and suspended surgeries after air samples revealed unhealthy levels of mold spores in four of six operating rooms.

After anonymous tips to the media, the hospital went public Dec. 6 about finding the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease in the facility’s water. Officials said the pathogens weren’t at levels potent enough to threaten public health.

In late December, the medical branch hired a firm to treat its water system in response to the Legionnaires’ scare. Neither patients nor staff became sick with Legionnaires’ disease, officials said.

All operating rooms opened this week.

The hospital’s emergency room, however, still is operating on a treat-and-transfer or treat-and-release basis.

The hospital returns as a sharply downsized facility. Before the hurricane, which damaged the blood bank, pharmacy, cafeteria and sterilization facilities, employees treated on average 522 patients.

Storm surge flooded 750,000 square feet in buildings on the campus, which is just yards from Galveston Bay.

Storm damage and lost revenue from having to close John Sealy Hospital were among reasons the University of Texas System regents cited Nov. 12 when they approved laying off up to 3,800 people.

Regents said the 117-year-old medical branch had been losing $40 million a month since the storm.

Ultimately, the medical branch laid off 3,000 people.

Before the storm, it took 3,700 employees to run the hospital. The medical branch has said it expected to retain about 2,428 people to run the downsized operation.

Eventually, the medical branch intends to increase the amount of beds for prisoners to 109. But officials have not been able to offer specifics about whether or when the hospital would increase the number of beds for the general public.

The medical branch, which also is known for treating the uninsured, will be accepting a limited number of indigent patients, Sexton said.

“However, given our current configuration and the limtied number of beds available, we will not be able to admit the number of patients — including indigent patients — at pre-Ike volumes,” she said.