Working backwards a little, we just received a bill from Parkland Memorial Hospital for the time my husband spent there after having been burned and sent to their famous burn unit by another hospital. He was there for 2 weeks and 2 hours, and the total bill was $196,863.10. Some examples of the gouging are: Zolpidem (generic Ambien) - instead of one 10 mg tablet each night, they gave him 2 5mg. The total charge each of the nights he was there for just this one cheap medication was $38.07. That's over $19.00 per pill! By contrast, a lot of the others they gave him were only $3.00 per pill. I could go on and on about it, but I won't. I will mention one other thing that is absolutely appalling... My husband has sleep apnea and has a C-Pap machine at home. It's small and easily portable. I asked if I could bring it for him to use at Parkland and was told no by several different people. They provided him one. Someone from the respiratory department would bring it each night somewhere between 9:00 p.m. and midnight (regardless of the time we requested) and would come to turn it off anywhere between 4:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. The cost of this PER NIGHT was $1098.00. That racked up over $15,000 of the charges!!!
Now, Parkland is supposed to be the "charity" hospital for Dallas County. It is pretty run-down looking, and the new building is probably sorely needed. However, contrary to what one would think, it is the most financially successful hospital in the entire city of Dallas! Can you believe it?
Just look at the stats:
The information below was reported between June and August 2010.
Parkland profits = $92,221,250
Baylor University Hospital profits = $67,354,926
Methodist Dallas profits = $39,478,120
Saint Paul profits = $1,784,128
Zale-Lipshy profits = $430,988
Baylor Specialty Hospital lost $4,182,153
Yes, Parkland is the richest hospital in the city.
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