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Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley will be hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the establishment of the Valley’s first freestanding, designated children’s hospital, which opened in May.
The event will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the hospital, located at 2820 W. Michelangelo Drive in Edinburg.
The new $105 million, eight-floor facility features new tech including a Language Line, a translation machine to improve communication; CT machine that has a 560-slice count; MRI machine; a pneumatic tube system for labs, and other state-of-the-art equipment.
Throughout the event, which is free and open to the public, attendees can enjoy food, drinks and various activities. Attendees will also receive special commemorative Driscoll items such as a minted coin with the hospital’s engraved image.
Not only will the event celebrate the new hospital but it will also honor Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa for his legislative work advocating for the improvement of children’s health care in South Texas.
Most recently Hinojosa, along with his fellow South Texas legislators, wrote to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission advocating for the Driscoll Health Plan.
The senator is advocating for the HHSC to reconsider a previous decision not to award the STAR and CHIP contracts to the Driscoll Health Plan.
Early this year the state had awarded the contracts to Aetna, a for-profit organization.
“This is truly a momentous occasion for pediatric healthcare in South Texas and we’re honored to have Sen. Hinojosa, who has been an advocate for our children for so many years, here to celebrate with us,” Matt Wolthoff, president of Driscoll Children’s Hospital Rio Grande Valley, said in a news release.
“We invite the community to come and help us cut the ribbon on a new standard of care for our kids in the Rio Grande Valley.”
Hinojosa will be awarded the “Children’s Health Care Hero Award” by the Children’s Hospital Association of Texas, a nonprofit group that represents children’s hospitals in Texas.
