It’s still the first quarter of 2019, and Dallas Regional Medical Center (DRMC) has already been recognized with several awards including the Star Local Media Readers’ Choice Award for Best Hospital and Favorite Place to Work, the World Changer Award from the Honor Ministries, and the Stellar Sponsor and Internship Partner of the Year by the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s always great to be recognized for our good work, but being named Best Hospital and Favorite Place to Work in the Readers’ Choice Awards competition is amazing,” said Glenda Matchett, DRMC CEO. “What makes this recognition extra special is that you, the readers, are the ones who made this possible.”
Last month DRMC donated $10,000 to the Veterans Memorial, as well as $10,000 to the Honor Ministries, a before/after school club at Mesquite ISD’s high schools that serves to impact the entire school and community. The program focuses on chivalry, honor, rites of passage, The Father’s blessing, courageous leadership and moral excellence.
“You hear it all the time, so much so that at times it becomes a cliche … but children are our future, and investing in them is the best investment I can think of. Building a strong community means building strong leaders, and these young men and women are the ones who will become some of our community leaders in the future,” Matchett said. “They will be our caregivers, our first responders, our pastors, our teachers, our veterans, and so on. Thinking about this fact is the reason I knew we had to lend our support.”
Aside from their donations, DRMC is involved in the community in other ways as well, such as their internship opportunities and the Mesquite Heart Board Go Red for Women Gala, hosted by the Mesquite Heart Board.
“We are so proud of our partnership with the Mesquite Independent School District. Throughout the year, we host a number of interns from MISD high schools. These students are studying to have careers in the medical field, so we give them the opportunity to see what healthcare is like,” Matchett said. “For a number of years, we were only able to host students from three MISD high schools because of our capacity issues, but thanks to some hard work from our staff to increase our capacity, we’re now able to host students from all MISD high schools. We really appreciate the chamber and MISD members recognizing us with these great awards.”
Dallas Regional was a $5,000 sponsor at the second annual Go Red Gala, and their employed physician group, Dallas Medical Physician Group, was a $5,000 sponsor as well. Their director of Emergency Services, Lisa Fox, is the Mesquite Heart Board President, and was instrumental in creating the event, which began last year. This year the MHB established their own 501(c)3 so all of their donations could go back into the Mesquite community.
“Our goal is to teach hands-only CPR in the community, increase awareness about heart disease and stroke, and to raise funds so we can provide AEDs (automated external defibrillators) to small businesses, churches, and homeowner associations. This is immensely important because two Mesquite ZIP codes have the highest number of heart attacks out of the seven counties in the Metroplex,” Fox said.