Featured: Edinburg-based DHR Health has generated a $2.3 billion economic impact over a recent three-year period that has helped not only its hometown, but neighboring cities, as evidenced by the Wednesday, November 7, 2018 grand opening and ribbon-cutting held for the DHR Health Wellness Institute, located at 120 E. Savannah, Suite 21 in McAllen.
Photograph By KAYLA BANNWART
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DHR Health, with its multi-billion dollar economic impact, “really puts us on the map,” says Mayor Molina. “We have been truly blessed.”
By DAVID A. DÍAZ
[email protected]
Edinburg-based DHR Health, with its multi-billion dollar economic impact, is a blessing for the city and region, and “really puts us on the map,” says Mayor Richard Molina.
DHR Health, which opened its doors in 1997 as a 30-bed ambulatory surgical facility then called Day Surgery at Renaissance, has transformed into one of the most prominent medical institutions in Texas. It now features a modern, 500+bed, full-service hospital network that has recorded more than two million patient visits, among its many resources and achievements.
“It’s exciting to have DHR Health in the City of Edinburg,” said Molina. “It is an economic driver for our city and the entire region. They have excellent services. I am familiar with their medical services first-hand, and DHR Health will continue to expand and grow.”
Molina’s praise for DHR Health came following the Tuesday, November 20, 2018 Edinburg City Council meeting, where local resident Joanna Pérez-Peña presented a $15,000 check, raised from proceeds from the 9th Annual “Love your Cha Chas’ 5K Run/Walk” – which Pérez-Peña took the lead in voluntarily organizing – to the DHR Health Cancer Foundation for cancer awareness and research.
A medical complex such as DHR Health in Edinburg “is what really puts us on the map,” Molina emphasized.
Many of DHR Health’s wide-ranging benefits for Edinburg and the Valley are documented in a major publication, titled “Economic Snapshot of the Rio Grande Valley”, which was produced by the RGV Partnership.
RGV Partnership “advocates for economic prosperity across our four-county (Hidalgo, Cameron, Willacy, and Starr) region,” Sergio Contreras, President of RGV Partnership, explains in his welcome page of the 86-page report. “The RGV Partnership works closely with local, state and national elected leaders to create awareness of both our unique challenges and exciting opportunities in our region.”
The “Economic Snapshot of the Rio Grande Valley” also covers other key aspects of the region, including economic development allies, population trends, building permit barometer, Valley workflow, Valley trade, Valley business summary, foreign trade zones, port level activities, international bridge crossings, airport traffic, educational pipeline, vocational and technical schools, high school enrollment, universities and colleges, state and federal legislators, and hospitals.
Included in the “Economic Snapshot of the Rio Grande Valley” are history, data, and projections about DHR Health that make its two-page summary figuratively jump off the pages.
“DHR Health is deeply committed to advancing the health of our community. We are 700 physicians, 1,200 nurse, researchers and educators using innovative medicine and the most advance technology to offer world-class health care, here at home,” state’s the hospital system’s introduction in its summary of its report, titled “Advancing the health of the RGV”.
Other facts presented by DHR Health are as equally, if not more, impressive, including such achievements as:
• DHR Health, during a recent three-year period, produced a $2.3 billion economic impact in deep South Texas;
• DHR Health has 4,400 total employees, representing an annual $287 million payroll; and
• DHR Health has provided $700 million in charitable care.
With the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine campus in Edinburg, of which DHR Health provides key medical residency programs, the city’s health care network of advanced medical care and education helps draw constant and positive attention to his hometown, Molina said.
In general, a medical residency is part of a graduate medical training during which a resident gets to practice medicine under the supervision of a more experienced doctor.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residency_(medicine).
“I had asked our new city manager, Juan Guerra, who came from the City of Pharr, what interested him about Edinburg? We are just a little bit more populated than Pharr,” the mayor recalled. “They have the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge (http://bridge.pharr-tx.gov), we have the regional Edinburg Landfill (http://www.cityofedinburg.com/regionalI.php). What do you think separates us? One of the things he brought up is our medical facilities, including DHR. Some of our neighboring cities, which are almost our size in population, don’t have those resources. This is a determinant on why people come to Edinburg.”
The mayor also noted that DHR leaders and employees are an important part of community service in the city.
“If one goes to our public events in Edinburg, such as ribbon-cuttings or other important announcements, DHR Health always sends representatives,” Molina observed. “They are very visible, always involved in our community, such as being generous contributors to our annual Blue Santa toy drive. DHR Health’s involvement is constant.”
The large number of employees at DHR Health’s sprawling campus of hospital and medical buildings in southwest Edinburg also means political leaders such as Molina are wise to spend time visiting with its leaders and staff members on a regular basis.
“I have hosted my Mayor’s Breakfast at DHR Health, at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, because they are major players in our economy, because they employ so many people, and they are very involved in our community and our quality-of-life,” the mayor said. “We have been truly blessed.”
Other information provided in DHR’s latest report to the community, “Advancing the health of the RGV”, features the following highlights:
• DHR Health was founded with the goal of addressing all of the health care needs of the community, so as to eliminate the need for residents to seek medical services outside the region, and DHR Health continues to invest millions of dollars in people, services and technology to achieve that goal;
• In 1995, eight forward-thinking physicians embarked on a remarkable journey that continues to this day. Concerned that the residents of the Rio Grande Valley lacked access to necessary healthcare services, the founders of DHR Health worked diligently for two years to lay the groundwork for what would become the area’s top health system and an economic juggernaut with an estimated $2.3 billion economic impact (over three years);
• DHR Health is dedicated to offering a full continuum of care in more than 70 different specialties and subspecialties. It has the best specialty care in the region, a 24/7 level three trauma center, a clinical research division, and graduate medical education programs;
• DHR Health continually works to forge an integrated health care delivery model that incorporates patient navigation, electronic medical records, population-based care, graduate medical education, and superior quality and efficiency to meet every patient’s needs;
• DHR Health’s innovative advances and willingness to break the mold have shaped DHR Health into a national best practice model hospital in a medically-underserved area.
“DHR Health has revolutionized the health care landscape of the Rio Grande Valley the past 20 years, and we intend to continue raising the standard of care and transforming the health care delivery model for the benefit of all Rio Grande Valley residents,” said Carlos Cárdenas, MD, Chairman, Board of Directors, DHR Health. “DHR Health is committed to the Rio Grande Valley because we are from here – we are 100 percent locally-owned and operated.”
Additional information about DHR Health is available online at: https://www.dhr-rgv.com.
Cárdenas, one of the founders of DHR Health, added “DHR Health is committed to creating a world-class health system to advance medicine and increase access to care by empowering caregivers to heal through compassion, knowledge, innovation, integrated care and excellence.”
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For more information, please contact Roberto Haddad, Vice President and Counsel for Government Affairs and Policy at DHR Health, or Jesse Ozuna, Government Affairs Officer at DHR Health, at 956/362-7165. For more on other Texas legislative news stories which affect the Rio Grande Valley metropolitan region, please log on to Titans of the Texas Legislature.
