Hospital in South Dallas Celebrates First Anniversary
DALLAS — Parkland Health & Hospital System’s Hatcher Station Health Center recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. The $22 million facility sits on seven acres in South Dallas and replaced the old East Dallas Health Center.
“It has brightened up this part of the neighborhood. We hope it will lead to even more development,” said Rev. Donald R. Parish Sr. of True Lee Missionary Baptist Church, which is located directly behind the health center.
Before construction of the Hatcher health center, the area was dominated by illegal businesses, including a shady motel and an unlicensed nightclub. For a decade, residents petitioned to have the strip demolished. Now that the health center is established, the residents want the area to keep getting better.
Currently, there are no retail or real restaurants on the two-acre tract of land near the clinic. The Bertrand Neighborhood Association is holding monthly markets to attract vendors and entrepreneurs. Held every fourth Saturday, the next meeting is on June 25.
Since the opening on May 19, 2015, the Hatcher health center has seen more than 5,000 patients per month and dispensed over 119,000 prescriptions. The clinic provides adult, geriatric, behavioral health, pharmacy, lab and radiology, financial counseling, a refugee outreach program, family planning, gynecology, obstetrics, sonogram and mental health services. The Women & Infants Specialty Health program provided care for more than 14,000 patient encounters alone.
The one-story facility is located across the street from the Hatcher DART light-rail station on the Green Line with patients and staff alike utilizing the convenient transportation.
Hatcher health center is a public-private partnership between the City of Dallas and nonprofit Frazier Revitalization, based in Dallas. The health center is part of Parkland’s Community Oriented Primary Care system, which has 12 primary clinics, 12 school-based clinics and mobile vans in Dallas County. On a 25-year lease with Parkland, Hatcher’s health center has the option to purchase after seven years.