Parkland Memorial Hospital
Encyclopedia
Parkland Memorial Hospital is a hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

 located at 5201 Harry Hines Boulevard
Harry Hines Boulevard
Harry Hines Boulevard is a major street in Dallas, Texas, , to the west of Uptown.It was one of the very first 'highways' in Texas, and is named for Harry Hines in honor of his work helping to get roads paved in this part of the state. Harry Hines served on the Texas Highway Commission from Feb...

, just west of Oak Lawn
Oak Lawn, Dallas
Oak Lawn is a neighborhood in Dallas, Texas , defined in Dallas City Ordinance 21859 as . The unofficial boundaries are Turtle Creek Boulevard, Central Expressway, the City of Highland Park, Inwood Road, and Harry Hines Boulevard. It is over in area...

 in Dallas, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 (USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

). It is the main hospital of the Dallas County Hospital District (dba
Doing business as
The phrase "doing business as" is a legal term used in the United States, meaning that the trade name, or fictitious business name, under which the business or operation is conducted and presented to the world is not the legal name of the legal person who actually own it and are responsible for it...

 Parkland Health and Hospital System) and serves as Dallas County
Dallas County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

's public hospital.

History

The original hospital opened in 1894 in a wooden building on a 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) meadow located at Oak Lawn Avenue and Maple. The name Parkland came from the land on which the hospital was built, originally purchased by the city as a park. A brick building (the first ever erected in Texas, now owned by the Trammell Crow
Trammell Crow
F. Trammell Crow was an American real estate developer. Crow is credited for creating several famous real estate projects, including Dallas Market Center, Peachtree Center , and San Francisco's Embarcadero Center.-Biography:Crow was born in Dallas, Texas...

 Company) replaced the wooden facility in 1913.

In 1954, it moved to its current location, about a mile from the original site.

JFK assassination

Parkland is best-known as the hospital where three individuals associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

 died: John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 himself, his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...

, and Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby
Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...

, who killed Oswald.

After he was shot on Friday, November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was rushed to Parkland, where he was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. in Trauma Room 1. At the same time, Texas Governor John Connally
John Connally
John Bowden Connally, Jr. , was an influential American politician, serving as the 39th governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon. While he was Governor in 1963, Connally was a passenger in the car in...

, wounded in the same shooting, was being treated in Trauma Room 2.

Two days after the assassination, Oswald was rushed to Parkland after being shot in the abdomen by Ruby, and died in operating room #5 after over 90 minutes of surgery. Ruby died on January 3, 1967 in the same emergency room, from a pulmonary embolism associated with lung cancer.

Since Ruby's death in 1967, the emergency room has been remodeled and the area where Kennedy, Oswald, and Ruby died now serves as the hospital's emergency radiology department. A plaque commemorating their deaths has been placed in the room.

Capabilities

Parkland is the Dallas County public hospital; funds are primarily provided by a specially designated property tax on Dallas County residents.

Parkland serves as one of the area's three Level 1 Trauma centers (alongside Baylor University Medical Center
Baylor University Medical Center
Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas is a faith-based, not-for-profit hospital. In 1903, the hospital opened with 25 beds; today it is a patient care, teaching and research center for the Southwest. Baylor Dallas has 1025 licensed beds and serves as the flagship hospital of Baylor Health...

, also in Dallas, and John Peter Smith Hospital
John Peter Smith Hospital
John Peter Smith Hospital is a hospital located in Fort Worth, Texas.The hospital is named after John Peter Smith, a former mayor of Fort Worth. JPS also houses numerous residencies, including a ranked family medicine residency. In addition, Southwestern University has an oral and maxillofacial...

 in Fort Worth), a primary care center for Dallas County residents, and (along with UT Southwestern) as a medical and surgical referral center for North Texas and parts of Southern Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. Thus, virtually all medical and surgical subspecialties are represented—which makes Parkland a destination for post-graduate medical training. Its Burns Unit is famous for the Parkland Formula for fluid resuscitation, developed by Charles R. Baxter
Charles R. Baxter
Charles R. Baxter was an American medical doctor. Baxter was one of the doctors who unsuccessfully tried to save John F. Kennedy after he was shot in Dallas, Texas in 1963....

 in the 1960s.

At 968 licensed beds, Parkland ranks among the largest teaching hospitals in the nation. Texas Woman's University
Texas Woman's University
Texas Woman's University is a co-educational university in Denton, Texas, United States with two health science center branches in Dallas, Texas and Houston, Texas...

 began its Bachelor of Science nursing program at Parkland in 1954 and it is still located within walking distance of the Parkland campus. Parkland also serves as the major teaching hospital of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is one of the biomedical research institutions of the University of Texas System, incorporating three degree-granting institutions, four affiliated hospitals, including Parkland Memorial, the teaching hospital, and biomedical research...

.

It has the distinction of delivering more infants under one roof than any other hospital in the nation, averaging 15-16,000 deliveries per year. Parkland Memorial has nine prenatal clinics and employs 72 doctors training to become obstetricians-gynecologists and 45 nurse-midwives. In 2005, the staff delivered 15,590 babies, an average of more than 42 infants per day. Parkland created one of the first high-risk antenatal units in the nation and had the first neonatal intensive care unit in North Texas.

Parkland is also the base for Biotel, the medical direction
Medical direction
Medical Direction, or Online Medical Direction, allows a Paramedic or Emergency Medical Technician to contact a physician from the field via radio or other means to obtain instructions on further care of a patient...

 system used by Dallas Fire-Rescue and most of the other fire departments in Dallas County.

Relationships with surrounding counties

Since Parkland is a public hospital, it accepts patients from Dallas County
Dallas County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

 regardless of their ability to pay. As such, uninsured residents from surrounding counties that do not have public hospitals of their own (and which are not subject to the special property tax used for Parkland operations) regularly seek treatment at Parkland. These surrounding counties actually transport indigent and uninsured patients to Parkland in county owned ambulances and drop them off. This has caused financial turmoil for the hospital in recent years, as the surrounding counties are not required by law to reimburse Parkland for services provided to their residents (though some of them have on rare occasions done so). Also, Parkland does not request information on a patient's legal status.

New facility

The large volume of patients seen at Parkland, along with its overcrowded 50+-year-old facility (hospital beds can regularly be seen in the hallways), led the Dallas County
Dallas County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

 Commissioners Court to propose replacing the building with a new 1700000 square feet (157,935.2 m²), 862-bed facility, along with a new 380000 square feet (35,303.2 m²) outpatient center, a 275000 square feet (25,548.3 m²) office facility, and parking for 6,000 cars. The total cost would be $1.27 billion, to be paid for through three avenues: 1) a $747 million bond proposition (contingent on voter approval, which was obtained in November 2008), 2) $350 million of cash from current and future operations, and 3) $150 million from private donations.

The board approved nearly $100 million in contracts and hired two architectural firms – HDR Architecture (based in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

, but operates a large practice in Dallas) and Corgan Associates Inc. (based in Dallas) – to design the new building. The hospital is set to be completed in 2014. In addition to Dallas County tax payers funding the public hospital, large private donations were made as well.

Annette and Harold Simmons and their family contributed a $50 million challenge grant that was contingent on the Parkland Foundation raising $100 million for the project over the next five years.

The foundation of Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones pledged an additional $25 million, contingent on the passage of the proposition in Dallas County on election day
Election Day (politics)
Election Day refers to the day when general elections are held. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate, while in other countries elections are always held on a weekday...

. Trevor Rees-Jones is the President and CEO of Chief Oil and Gas
Chief Oil and Gas
Chief Oil & Gas was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1994 by President and CEO Trevor Rees-Jones. Its primary holdings of natural gas were developed in the core areas of the Barnett Shale in Tarrant County, Denton County and Parker County...

, based out of Dallas, Texas. The Rees-Jones Foundationhttp://www.rees-jonesfoundation.org/ was created in 2006 to provide support and funding for programs that will help improve the quality of life for the underserved people of North Texas
North Texas
North Texas is a distinct cultural and geographic area forming the central-northeastern section of the U.S. state of Texas. North Texas is generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, and north of Waco...

.

Mr. Rees-Jones said, "We're interested in helping folks who are less fortunate than others and who are suffering in various ways. Without Parkland, these people would be distributed to hospitals throughout the area." He also went on to say, "They rebuild a hospital like this every 60 years or so. I saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in the creation of a new Parkland."

Other major contributions include:
  • $1.5 million: Nexen Petroleum USA
  • $1.25 million: Parkland Auxiliary
  • 1.25 million: Hirsh Family Foundation

  • $100,000 each: Balfour Beatty
    Balfour Beatty
    Balfour Beatty plc is a British construction, engineering, military housing, rail and investment services company. It is one of the largest construction companies in the UK, and the 15th largest in the world...

    /Shari and Eric Krueger (Balfour Beatty is one of the joint venture members building the new facility; its US operations are based in Dallas), Boone Family Foundation, Theodore and Annette Strauss Foundation/Nancy and Jeremy Halbreich, Mike A. Myers, Joan and Alan Walne, Vin & Caren Prothro Foundation and one anonymous donor.

  • $50,000 each: Sue and Dr. Ron J. Anderson (Dr. Anderson is Parkland's President and CEO), Joann and John Dragovits, Cynthia and David Krause, Susie and T. Hardie, John Haupert, Linda and Dalton Lott, and the Ruth C. & Charles S. Sharp Foundation.

  • The campaign has also raised $369,525 from board members, the hospital board of managers, staff and individuals.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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