A First Peek Inside the New Parkland Hospital: From Helipad to ER in 32 Seconds

We had a chance to take a sneak peak at the new Parkland Hospital on Harry Hines Boulevard Friday night as part of a medical conference. Of course, because my husband is an OB/GYN, we toured the OB department, labor and delivery rooms, and surgery suites. The more than billion dollar building is mighty impressive, and offers state of the art design in healthcare. The campus will be 2.5 million square feet — astonishing — and is nearly twice the size of the old Parkland Hospital. The new hospital opens next summer, or as soon as a bridge to the old Parkland Hospital is complete — they will use the bride to transport patients over one-by-one.

I wanted to share the very cool views from the top of the new facility where the heliport will take in emergency transfers. The elevators in the new hospital are huge — I didn’t even get one ounce of claustrophobia — designed that way so that as soon as a transport is received, teams of doctors and nurses can begin work on the patient while in the elevator! This is crucial to emergency and critical care. This view made me very proud of Dallas and of course, the health care we offer. If you want to use the way over-used word (in my opinion) “world-class” about anything in Dallas, feel free to apply it to our healthcare. It is by far the best, and with this fabulous new facility, will continue to draw more of the brightest and best to Dallas. I toured with a group of young OB/GYN residents who were ooohing and ahhing over the cool features of each room, including the technology — state of the art TV monitors in each room so you can watch patients, and windows that offered privacy with a flick of the wrist.

Most vitally, the art of saving lives here will be more than world class: we were told that doctors will be able to get a patient off the helicopter and down to the ER (or Labor & Delivery) in 32 seconds!

The new hospital will have 862 single-patient rooms with private bathrooms and space for families and visitors, and here is what you can expect in the labor and delivery area.  Like most of the private hospitals out there, women will be able to balor and deliver in the same room.  My husband tells me that moving a patient from the labor room to delivery, as I recall doing, is “disruptive”. The rooms are lovely and offer space for family. If you do have to head to the OR for a C-Section, there is now space in anterooms for multiple babies. Did you know that, at one point, Parkland  Hospital doctors delivered 1 out of every 22 Texans! And at one point, 1 out of every 3 babies in Dallas was been delivered at Parkland, or so we were told at the cocktail event!

The lovely new campus also promotes an environment of healing by incorporating natural lighting and a wellness garden. One of the many distinct design features is the image of trees on the lobby glass. When seen closely, the trees are actually made of the names of the thousands of Dallas County citizens who support Parkland.

Patient bathroom, all private

Electronics are state-of-the-art

New laboring rooms

Big screen monitors in every room

Lobby

Nurses station
Dallas view from the heliport