By Healthcare Facilities Today

The replacement Parkland Hospital in Dallas is being designed with security in mind. The facility, which serves the county jail, currently has inmates mingled with the general patient population, using the same services, entrances, and exits, according to an article on the WFAA website.

The new facility will have a four-vehicle sally port is just for prison transfers. There is also a ten-room, cinder-block wing that will serve as a jail within the hospital. Each room has high-security locks and 1,000 lb. doors on every room.

Parkland officials want to make sure that patient safety problems that led to a two-year investigation are behind them, the article said. The new $1.2 billion facility being built across the street from the original facility and is designed to eliminate some of the biggest concerns.

"You know what happens at Parkland - you see people running around in jumpsuits,” Kathy Harper, Parkland’s vice president for clinical coordination, said in the article. “Everything will be contained in this unit. The only time they will be transported is when they need surgery or to deliver a baby or when they need ICU. We cannot do ICU here."

Read the article.