By Vincent Hall
“I was born at Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1958. It was one of the only hospitals in Dallas where my mother, an African American, was allowed to be a patient. I was in second grade before my parents received the right to vote. It’s not lost on me how far our society has come in my lifetime.”
When I opened the Dallas Morning News app this week and read this first line, I thought dementia had crept up on me. How did some news reporter get my testimony without talking to me? But the sobering thought that overtook me was that 99% of the Negro babies born in Dallas in that era had no alternative except Parkland.
The next paragraph reassured me that it wasn’t about me.
“So, to become the first African American to serve as president of the medical staff at Parkland Health is an honor I receive with humility and great reverence. This election by my peers connects me to a point in time when African Americans and other people of color did not have a voice.”
For transparency, let me admit that Dr. James Griffin is a fellow church and hospital Board member, and a much more accomplished Parkland alum. He is a humble brother whose ability to engage and educate others is understated.
Parkland Hospital is a safe place for the poor and is underrated and taken for granted by those who live in Dallas. Most of us need to understand how it functions and why it matters.
Parkland is among the largest and most significant “safety net” hospitals in the United States. This facility ranks with other two powerhouse operations. The Health and Hospital Corporation in New York and the Cook County Hospital system in Chicago round out America’s top three.
Safety net hospitals are a type of medical center in the United States that by legal obligation or mission provides healthcare for individuals regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. These providers organize and deliver significant health care and other needed services to uninsured, Medicaid, and other vulnerable patients.
The name Parkland evokes several things. Globally, Parkland is known as the place where President John Fitzgerald Kennedy received his last rights and gasped his last breath. Locals are quick to reduce Parkland to its emergency room which has seen more of than its share of violence and tragedy. The hospital is known for its burn unit and for providing skilled care in times of great crisis.
Red Bird Re-Imagined, Bluitt Flowers, and several other Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) clinics are strategically placed in underserved communities. These satellite clinics provide a place of consistent refuge for those who have no primary care physician. Medical needs that range from podiatry to pre-natal care are administered to citizens who would otherwise go unattended.
Dr. Griffin is the newly elected medical staff president, which tethers the hospital to the sterling staff of doctors in training and practice through UT Southwestern Medical Center. UTSW is nationally recognized for clinical research, technological advances in health care, and as a breeding ground for distinguished professionals.
Parkland’s advocacy and Dr. Griffin’s placement are made even more profound because the State of Texas lags in health care access and treatment for older adults, the poor, and children.
The “gubner” and them “good Christians” in Austin still reject Medicaid expansion. Those demons will eventually find their place in hell, and hopefully God doesn’t have a safety net hospital. If he has a “burn unit” I pray he closes the doors just like the doors these hypocrites close on the poor!
In the end, Dr. Griffin quoted William Augustus Jones Jr., one of the premier preachers in Black history. Dr. Jones was known for his tall, full frame, and a bass voice that bellowed, who once said, “Where a trumpet is expected, a flute will not suffice.”
Thank God that he sent us a trumpet in Dr. James Griffin. He’s playing our tune, because he knows it.
Vincent L. Hall is an author, activist, award-winning columnist and a lifelong Drapetomaniac!
