Yesterday, Baylor Scott & White Health, Methodist Health System, and Parkland Hospital expanded testing and education in southern Dallas.
COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on African Americans. These additional testing sites will serve neighborhoods with comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease — all of which are proving to increase the lethality of the coronavirus. Methodist will be expanding its testing site near Methodist Charlton Medical Center. Parkland will be adding COVID-19 testing to four of its Community Oriented Primary Care health centers. BSW will create a specimen collection center at the Baylor Scott & White Health and Wellness Center at the Juanita J. Craft Recreation Center.
“Methodist has been committed to serving the southern sector of Dallas for more than 92 years, with two hospitals in the region,” says Methodist Health System CEO Jim Scoggin via release. “We are happy for the opportunity to collaborate with two other quality systems to offer more tests for patients who need them.” The new Methodist clinic will be open 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., Monday-Friday by appointment only. Patients must first be screened for an appointment.
“Parkland has been on the front lines of Dallas County’s fight against COVID-19 since the beginning of the health crisis, managing three large testing sites in North Texas and making ongoing visits to nursing homes and homeless shelters to test at-risk communities,” said Fred Cerise, MD, MPH, President and CEO of Parkland Health & Hospital System. “We added testing capability to seven of our Community Oriented Primary Care health centers including four located across south Dallas to provide more convenient access to patients in their own neighborhoods.” Parkland’s clinics, the Hatcher Station Health Center, deHaro-Saldivar Health Center, Bluitt-Flowers Health Center, and Southeast Dallas Health Center, are open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday by appointment only. Services are open to current Parkland patients who have an order from a Parkland physician saying that they meet the medically necessary criteria.
“This is an important extension of our service to the community,” said Jim Hinton, CEO, Baylor Scott & White Health. “We continue to work to make COVID-19 screening and testing as convenient to Texans as possible.” Those diagnosed with COVID-19 will be able to use a COVID-19 home monitoring solution through the MyBSWHealth app or website.
