DALLAS – Parkland Health & Hospital System released the following statement today in response to an article published in the Dallas Morning News containing inaccuracies: Under the headline New Hospital Over Budget, the Dallas Morning News wrote that Parkland was $156 million over budget on its new hospital construction and the system hid that overrun from the public.
This is not true.
The new Parkland Hospital project is not now nor has it ever been $156 million over budget. And far from hiding information from the public, the option of moving all Parkland facilities across Harry Hines at a cost in excess of $100 million was discussed and rejected during public meetings of the Board of Managers’ Facilities Committee at which the Dallas Morning News was present.
“As I told Commissioners’ Court yesterday, Parkland staff did ask for estimates on what it would cost to discontinue use of all buildings on the current campus and move everything including the outpatient clinics and administration offices across Harry Hines Boulevard to the location of the new hospital,” said Parkland Interim CFO Ted Shaw.
“It was eventually determined that such an effort would add an additional $156 million to the cost of the project. Given the cost, we did not consider that a viable option and we recommended a different path to the Board of Managers in which buildings on the current campus, which were constructed in the 1980s, are renovated for outpatient services. No one at Parkland has authorized any expenditure beyond the resources we have currently identified. We have discussed this issue at numerous public meetings of the Board’s Facilities Committee.”
Source: Parkland
