MCALLEN, Texas - Dr. Nolan Perez, MD, a Harlingen native and University of Texas System regent, spoke at the official opening of the state-of-the-art Jackson Medical Plaza on N. Jackson in McAllen. 

Texas Digestive Specialists (TDS), a company Perez heads, is situated on the second floor. TDS offers a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic services for diseases of the digestive tract, liver, and pancreas. It also specializes in treating the full range of diseases and disorders that affect the colon, rectum, anus, appendix and small bowel.

On the first floor of the Jackson Medical Plaza is the McAllen Surgery Center, run by HCA Healthcare. Rio Grande Regional Hospital is part of HCA. Its CEO, Laura Disque, spoke at the official opening.

Many hundreds of VIPs were in attendance.

In his speech at the official opening, Perez pointed out that Texas does not fare well in national healthcare rankings.

“Texas, not the Rio Grande Valley, ranks 45th. I'm just going to merge the numbers but… 42nd for specialists, 48th for primary care doctors, 45th for the number of physicians per capita in the United States. That's Texas, as big and as fast as we are growing. So, you can imagine how far behind we are for the Rio Grande Valley.”

Perez said Texas Digestive Specialists “loves” to create partnerships. He gave some examples.

“Our partnership downstairs with HCA, the McAllen Surgery Center. We partner in so many ways with other hospitals and facilities, UHS, our physicians work there. I know that UHS is now getting involved with graduate medical education. That's incredible. HCA is now getting involved with UTRGV with graduate medical education. Incredible. Down the street we're not too far from DHR and we're really proud to partner with them in many ways and help them get a liver transplant program. We desperately need a live transplant program in this region and so hopefully we'll have one soon. We partner with Prime across the Valley. Incredible facilities. And then, of course, Tenet hospitals as well. Incredible. They have a long standing tradition of supporting undergraduate and graduate medical education. I love creating partnerships and creating collective impact solutions for all the healthcare needs of our region.”

Perez thanked the “amazing leaders” from the world of healthcare that attended the official opening. One of them was Matt Wolthoff, president of Driscoll's new children’s hospital in Edinburg.

“I told Matt Wolthoff, one of the CEOs who was here earlier… we can't stop until we can say that 99 percent of our people can get their health care in the Rio Grande Valley. In our lifetime, let’s make that possible.”


Here is an audio recording of Dr. Perez's remarks at the official opening of Jackson Medical Plaza in McAllen.

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