Dallas hospital unveils a $1.2B new site plan

Parkland Memorial Hospital, one of the busiest delivery rooms in the country, is announcing a $1.2 billion, 17-story hospital and clinics plan that will replace the current complex in 2014.

The juxtaposition of care and payment has been hurting many public hospitals, but a property tax on Dallas County residents funds the hospital, and in late 2008, county voters approved a $747 million bond issue to help pay for the new hospital.

As a public hospital, all patients are accepted, and the new hospital will have a much-larger separate treatment area for Dallas County jail inmates, said Robert "Hank" Adams, vice president of HDR Architecture, one of two firms designing the new hospital. The site plan introduced will not be final until February or March, with construction slated to start in November.

With so many working poor or uninsured coming to Parkland, the new complex--more than twice the size of the current hospital--has also ensured easy access to a public transportation DART rail station, as well as a bus transfer station.

To learn more:
- read this Dallas Morning News article