Don’t Let a Few Bad Apples Make You Lose Faith in Parkland or UT Southwestern

The future of Dallas safety-net hospital to open in 2015

Problems at Parkland and UT Southwestern have been found, and changes are being made. As most hospitals go through growing pains like Parkland and UT Southwestern have, it is natural for them to weed out staff that can’t do the job. That is the hard part of change that most people within our culture have to accept.

However, I have to say that most everyone at Parkland is dedicated to doing their best to make the necessary fixes to regain the public’s trust in our most vital and essential services. No one at Parkland is intentionally setting out to harm his or her patients here, as the news media is misportraying the situation to be.

Those who have an ulterior motive for working here for their own personal gain and who have not served the best interests of our patients—especially on the senior leadership and board of managers—are now gone, so we have wiped the slate clean. The few bad apples that were in management, who had not been doing their jobs, are now largely gone. Change has come to Parkland, so you should give us a second chance.

UTSW's William P. Clements, Jr. Hospital to open in 2014

Parkland is Dallas only county safety-net hospital for the poor and uninsured. And we realize that our roles as servant-leaders in this community take precedence over any other priority. Our patients’ safety must come first, and we are dedicated to learning from our mistakes and bad conduct in the past.

Despite what some of our critics say, I still believe a centralized and pooled facility more efficiently makes better use of limited resources than it would having a number of different county hospitals, each having to buy and employ repetitive and redundant facilities, expensive medical equipment, and staff. 

This is why I believe the Parkland system is better than any other city's safety-net hospital system. Other cities waste money and resources on buying a number of things like CT scanners, MRIs, and other expensive equipment for each of their county facilities, while Parkland can pool its resources to buy the best and most advanced equipment only once for its main hospital. Big is better in this case.

We are big, but we are not too big to fail. That’s why it’s so important now for the community to support our cause to finish and move into our new state-of-the-art hospital in 2015. We still need your support, despite what some have said that the new hospital is a mistake and the wrong direction for Dallas.

If Parkland does not have the support of the community, then much of the huge investment that this community has made in building our new hospital will all be for not. Think about it, Dallas. The choice is yours.

A Message to the Dallas Morning News

The people of Dallas—and especially the reporters of the Dallas Morning News—have to give us a break. We, the staff of Parkland and UTSW, are doing the best that we can, under extremely difficult and stressful circumstances, and our work goes by, largely unappreciated and unnoticed.

We occupy a unique place in Dallas County, being its only county hospital for the poor, indigent, and uninsured. No one else does what we do, nor takes care of the patients we take care of. That, in and of itself, should earn us a break for having to take on the responsibilities and burdens of this community that no one else is willing to take on.

But of late, the situation has become much more dire. Our work has been unfairly scrutinized and criticized by many outside agencies and organizations, who have no understanding how we conduct the business of a teaching program.

It’s time the people of Parkland and UTSW stand up and speak up for themselves against these slanderous and libelous claims by the news. Without us, where will the poor, uninsured, and indigent turn to?

The Dallas Morning News has always been jealous of our greater importance in this community. With the recent struggles of newspapers everywhere trying to survive in the age of social medial, traditional journalism is dead. Readerships are continuing to dwindle, which begs to ask if there is an ulterior motive for why the Dallas Morning News is so aggressively trying to follow and create news for this investigative news story.

No one does more or carries their own weight in this community than we do. We take care of those who no one wants to take care of. That includes the poor, homeless, uninsured, blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities, and we do it for free, with no charge to our patients. Without us, all these people would fall through the cracks or remain a burden to society.

Unless they can show they do more to serve this community than we do, the Dallas Morning News has no right to judge who we are.

A Blog About the Positive Things About Parkland and UTSW

We want to set the record straight about Parkland Memorial Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. UT Southwestern was recognized as the best hospital in Dallas, the best medical school in all of Texas, and one of the best medical research institutions in the entire nation by U.S. News & World Report. Similarly, Parkland, the main teaching hospital for UT Southwestern, was recognized as one of the best hospitals in all of North Texas.

Don't believe all everything out there in the media because there's more than meets the eye. Like every other hospital out there, Parkland and UT Southwestern have their share of problems, but there is no institution that is completely immune from any trouble and beyond reproach.

Parkland serves an essential service in the Dallas community as the only safety-net hospital for all of Dallas County's poor, indigent, and uninsured. Parkland is also Dallas' only level-1 trauma and comprehensive burn center in all of North Texas. We have nationally recognized and certified programs for burns and trauma that is second to none anywhere in the nation. We formulated the famous Parkland formula for burn resuscitation.

This blog is dedicated to all the hard working staff members at Parkland who do the very best they can to serve as stewards of care and servant leaders for the most vulnerable sector of this community. Please support us in our vital mission to serve those who no one else would. Without us, these people would fall between the cracks. Our mission is more important to this community than any one single person because we serve so many in the community.

We encourage our supporters to speak out on our behalf as we have for those we have served for more than fifty years. Tell us what you think.