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.