UT Southwestern welcomes first patients to new RedBird location in southwestern Dallas County
UT Southwestern Medical Center at RedBird opened its doors this week to bring UTSW’s medical care to patients in southwestern Dallas County. The facility is the newest regional outpatient medical center operated by UTSW.
It is part of Reimagine RedBird, the comprehensive redevelopment at the site of the former RedBird Mall. Located just off U.S. Highway 67 south of downtown Dallas, it offers a more convenient location for those who live or work in the Oak Cliff, DeSoto, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Lancaster, and surrounding areas who want access to UT Southwestern physicians and its technology without driving to the main campus, said John Warner, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs and CEO of the UT Southwestern Health System.
“Southern Dallas residents have had a shortage of health care treatment options nearby, and UT Southwestern is proud to help fill that void,” Dr. Warner said. “UT Southwestern is expanding our service area to this new region and offering patients there the highest level of care, which is always our goal for the patients we serve.”
In July, U.S. News & World Report ranked UT Southwestern the No. 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth for the sixth consecutive year. Several of the specialties that will be available at RedBird – such as cardiology, cancer, and neurology – are ranked near the top nationally by U.S. News.
Humza Siddiqi, M.D., a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine, described opening day as “awesome” and said the facility was “beautiful … It’s very spacious. Everything has state-of-the-art equipment.”
Dr. Siddiqi, board-certified in both family medicine and gerontology, made news among the staff by the way he welcomed his first patient on opening day, Aug. 29.
Victoria Doby, RN, Clinic Practice Manager for RedBird, said Dr. Siddiqi’s patient was in the RedBird parking lot and wrote a note on the patient portal site to him: “I’m here, where are you?” “Dr. Siddiqi went out in the parking lot and got him. I thought that was really sweet,” Ms. Doby said.
Ericka Walker Williams, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and board-certified in both internal medicine and rheumatology, welcomed the first patient of the day at RedBird. “She’d seen me one time before on the main campus and decided to come here to establish her care,” Dr. Walker Williams said of the patient. “She lives not very far from here.”
Dr. Walker Williams, who lives in the area as well, was also the first physician hired at RedBird. “I had been tracking its development through community meetings for the Reimagine RedBird project before the first brick was even laid. At that time, it was only a concept,” she said. “I am honored to serve and work in the community where I live.”
Services currently available at RedBird include primary care, cardiology, and cancer care, with plans to add neurology and culinary medicine later this year. Infusion therapy to treat cancer, sickle cell, and other illnesses is available, as is imaging technology for women’s diagnostics, such as ultrasound and mammography. UT Southwestern’s Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute will provide neurological care at RedBird, while its Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center will offer hematology/oncology care.
A phlebotomy lab for collecting and testing blood and urine samples, a full-service pharmacy, and additional advanced imaging technologies such as MRI, CT scan, ultrasound, and X-ray are also available at RedBird.
Children’s Health is expected to become part of the facility in 2024, making this the first UT Southwestern regional outpatient medical center where both adult and pediatric patients have the opportunity to receive care in the same facility.
The two-story, 150,000-square-foot center, located on Camp Wisdom Road near U.S. 67, is UT Southwestern’s sixth regional outpatient medical center and features an airy interior with frosted glass windows and a glass-enclosed open-air atrium planted with small trees and ferns.
Debra J. Wilson, one of the first patients on opening day, said she has been a UT Southwestern patient for 25 years – delivering her two sons at the former St. Paul University Hospital before it was replaced by William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. “I’ve been a patient with UT Southwestern for many years and I love the doctors. And this is right down the street from home – I didn’t have to go through the downtown traffic,” said the Postal Service retiree from DeSoto.
“I love it,” she added of the new facility. “It just reminds me so much of UT Southwestern downtown.”