Health care services in the Valley, always first rate, have taken a dramatic step forward with a number of recent projects. In addition to serving Valley residents, the South Texas medical establishment attracts patients from the north and the south drawn by the high quality of its facilities and the expertise of its physicians and staff.

Valley Air Care, an emergency helicopter service, provides mobile health care services. Since its establishment in 1995, more than 3,000 critical patients have been flown to medical centers.

Education for health care technicians in the RGV is highly advanced and steadily growing as a leading occupation. Above, a laboratory technician uses a multi-optical microscope to analyze blood samples at Valley Baptist Medical Center for the hospital and area Doctors.

UPPER VALLEY
McAllen Medical Center has 630 licensed beds, including The Heart Hospital, Behavioral Health, Inpatient Rehabilitation services and a freestanding Cancer Treatment Center, making it the largest health care provider in the immediate area.

The McAllen Medical Behavioral Health Center and Rehabilitation Institute of McAllen Medical Center provides inpatient rehabilitation in a freestanding 80-bed facility and offers child and adolescent services, geriatric psychiatry, adult psychiatric, chemical dependency and acute rehabilitation services.

The Heart Hospital of McAllen Medical Center, a specialty hospital dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of heart and blood vessel disease, offers 60 inpatient beds with operating rooms plus an emergency room.

South Texas Cancer Center-McAllen provides individualized chemotherapy treatment, radiation technology research studies, laboratory and pharmacy service and extensive patient services.

The Vannie E. Cook Cancer Foundation, also in McAllen, offers cancer education and screenings. Rio Grande Regional Hospital, McAllen, offers such comprehensive health services as orthopedics, heart surgery and cardiac rehabilitation, non-invasive kidney stone therapy, labor and delivery, general medical and surgical services and outpatient services.

Other Rio Grande Regional Hospital facilities include the Diabetes and Wound Management Center, McAllen Regional Imaging Center, Rio Grande Surgery Center, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center, Senior Friends Center, two Senior Health Centers and four Women’s OB Clinics.

Rio Grande Regional is completing a major expansion that will greatly increase the number of beds and services available in the future.

Edinburg Regional Medical Center is a sister facility to the McAllen Medical Center. The $40 million hospital includes a 120-bed acute care center.

Cornerstone Medical Center, Edinburg, termed a “one-stop shopping center of medical services,” includes the Cornerstone Orthopedic Hospital.

Mission Hospital is a community not-for-profit acute care facility. The 138-bed hospital is connected by an enclosed walkway to the Mission Doctors Plaza, which houses the high-tech Physical Therapy Unit, Imaging Center (MRI), Medical Equipment Supply Store and a drive-through pharmacy. There is a staff of more than 135 community physicians.

MID-VALLEY
Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco has 233 all-private rooms, and state-of-the-art imaging equipment. Its 19-bed emergency department works on a triage system where the sickest patients are seen first.

Valley Air Care, the helicopter ambulance, provides service to and from the facility. An expansion program is underway.

HARLINGEN AND SAN BENITO
The Medical Education Division of the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) located in Harlingen, is an upper level campus of the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio Medical School. It has clinical programs in the six required disciplines of internal medicine: obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, surgery, psychiatry and family practice medicine. Additionally, the RAHC includes residency programs in Internal Medicine, OB/GYN and pediatrics.

The RAHC is located immediately adjacent to the Valley Baptist Medical Center—Harlingen, the primary teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. VBMC—Harlingen, a 588-bed nonprofit institution providing a full range of medical services to the Harlingen area, is the centerpiece of a growing medical complex including 19 clinics, over 300 doctors and 30 dentists. The four-story East Tower houses a gift shop, education areas, food areas, day surgery rooms, a women’s care facility and a Children’s Center. The top of the tower serves as a heliport. VBMC’s staff covers all major specialties and most subspecialties and has an MRI facility, two CT scanners, nuclear medicine and a radiation therapy center. An 18-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit supplements its outpatient program.

The new Harlingen Medical Center provides acute healthcare services in a three-story facility. It has 112 patient beds, eight general operating rooms, two catheterization labs, six labor/delivery/recovery rooms and two OB/GYN operating suites. The hospital includes a full-service emergency center operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dolly Vinsant Hospital in San Benito is served by more than 150 physicians representing most specialties available in the area. Major expansion and renovations have modernized its departments and services.

LOWER VALLEY
Driscoll Children’s Hospital, world renowned for the quality of its medical care of children, recently opened its new clinic in McAllen and has completed a pediatric specialty clinic in Brownsville to serve the children of Brownsville and surrounding communities. The hospital has had subspecialty clinics in the Rio Grande Valley for over four years.

The oldest healthcare facility in the lower Valley is Valley Baptist Medical Center—Brownsville, formerly Brownsville Medical Center, a 243-bed acute care facility with adjacent medical office buildings. Valley Regional Medical Center’s $60 million hospital and medical complex in Brownsville features complete diagnostic imaging, outpatient services, a hyperbaric and wound care center and home health services. It also operates the Valley Regional Island Clinic on South Padre Island.