New Parkland Hospital in Dallas opens

DALLAS - It's moving day for the biggest and busiest county hospital in North Texas.

Parkland Memorial Hospital began transferring patients Thursday from its 1954 facility to a new campus that is twice as large and right across the street.

Despite having to overcome trouble with government regulators, a budget deficit and a growing patient load for a complex of buildings long outgrown, Parkland has managed to overcome it all.

The new 17-story Parkland Hospital is more than 2 million square feet. Its price tag is $1.2 billion.

It is a state of the art design, with every high tech item imaginable to offer quality health care.

The new county facility replaces the historic Parkland, where former Pres. John F. Kennedy died after being shot by Lee Harvey Oswald.

The new 862-bed facility has 144 emergency treatment rooms and a special trauma area in addition to 27 operating suites.

The new Parkland also has 96 neo-natal intensive care rooms. Its labor and delivery rooms, some of the busiest in the nation, are expanded with a separate building for maternity.