Northeast Texas is getting healthy
My “Get Healthy Journey” started June 12, 2006. Northeast Texas has become the health and wellness center of Texas.
Old people fall, and it is a major cause of death. I fell Jan. 17, 2006. If my fall had not happened in Canton, I would not be here writing to you because dead people don’t write.
From the instant I was put in the Champion EMS ambulance, I was in the care of the number one trauma team in the State of Texas located at Christus Trinity Mother Frances in Tyler. Good Shepard of Longview is now a part of that system.
Hang on, we are just getting started. Our Northeast Texas helicopter system of constantly trained teams cover over 150 square miles. This system assists Oklahoma, Louisiana, Dallas and is a part of the top first responder team in the USA.
Ardent Health Services, a for profit, strong track record corporation has acquired ETMC and it will become a part of the UT HEALTH EAST TEXAS. Because Ardent is a for-profit system, the acquisition will provide the area with a significant amount of tax dollars.
Keep on hanging on. Times are a changing when it comes to healthy, happy living. UT Health Northeast has announced its partnership with MD Anderson who consistently ranks No. 1 for cancer care by U.S. News & World report. All of this is expected to close March 1, and the new logo will be unveiled.
Last year UT Health Northeast invested $30 million toward the construction of a school of community health which will focus on finding solutions for rural and public health epidemics. The facility will be at the UT Health Science Campus.
So, what does all this mean to us who live and work in Northeast Texas? Kevin Eltife, a former state senator and currently a member of the University Board of Regents says, “The partnerships that we are building- the health care that we will be able to provide for our citizens- will be unmatched anywhere in this country.”
East Texas will be expanding teaching and training for more health care professionals. This will attract the brightest of the brightest who have the passion to cure sickness, illness, and chronic disease. Not just treat and control it.
We no longer will fight traffic to get to Dallas or Houston. Patient care will expand and improve using the new technologies of the 21St century.
We will no longer be underserved, we will be the leader in health care. Twenty-first century jobs and opportunities will not only come to East Texas, they will be created here.
It means we are becoming the health and wellness capital of the USA.
