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RLC Welcomes Newest Partnership with Parkland

by Kristin Bentley

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It is an absolute honor to announce our newest client, Parkland Health & Hospital System. Parkland awarded RLC with a 3-year contract to provide supplier diversity and community engagement consulting. As it is known as the public hospital of the Greater Dallas area, one of fastest growing communities in the country, we are grateful to provide such a needed and necessary service.

 

“It’s a great opportunity for us to strengthen an underserved community right in our own backyard,” says our founder & CEO Lamont Robinson of Dallas-based Robinson LaRueCo Consulting (RLC). “It’s incredible to be able to make a difference alongside a historic hospital.”

Originally opening in 1894 in a wooden building on a 17-acre meadow, Parkland is now one of the largest public hospitals in the nation with a Level I Trauma Center and the second largest civilian burn center. With a system that includes 20 community-based clinics, 12 school-based clinics, and numerous outreach and education programs, it is no surprise that it is also the primary teaching hospital for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Historically known as the hospital where John F. Kennedy died, as the film Parkland dramatizes, it has also been recognized as one of our country’s Most Wired Hospitals for excelling in the use of technology. Parkland was also recently named a Top Performer in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality by Human Rights Campaign Foundation and awarded for its outstanding service in response to the 2016 Dallas Police Shootings.

 

Alongside these collective awards and recognitions, President & CEO Fred Cerise, MD, MPH serves as a national advisor to Congress on issues affecting Medicaid. Executive Vice President Esmaeil Porsa, MD, MPH, CCHP was appointed by the state governor to establish standards for the care and treatment of county prisoners, as well as the construction, maintenance and operation of county jails.  

 

As invested as Parkland has been over the years in its support of diversity, it is committed to increasing these invaluable efforts with the professional assistance of our RLC team.

 

Beginning in July and continuing over the next three to five years, RLC will create a custom-fit supplier diversity program that will expand and build upon the hospital’s existing program and focuses on the needs of the local community. “We’re going to provide supplier diversity consulting,” says Robinson. “They already have a supplier diversity team but we’re going to be able to assist them in making significant enhancements.”

 

One of the main focuses of the partnership is to assist with further developing a connection to existing resources. “I believe our healthcare background will help Parkland to strengthen its relationship with its Group Purchasing Organization (GPO), Vizient. Our job is to be a sounding board and create a bridge between Parkland and Vizient.”    

 

According to our president of supplier diversity, Jesse Crawford, it is both fortuitous and ironic that Parkland is one of our newest major clients because as one of the busiest hospitals in the nation they are also known for their innovation.

 

Due to their strategy relationships with other hospitals in the area, their doctors are known worldwide for their award-winning efforts in trauma surgery. Parkland is very busy and very engaged with their community addressing all sorts of medical scenarios that will keep a doctor on their toes and at the peak of their skills, says Crawford.

 

“We, too, at RLC pride ourselves on being active and innovative at the forefront of supplier diversity, and for being able to address not only the needs of our clientele but also the business community at large,” adds Crawford. “This alignment with Parkland was very natural for us. Our focus is to evaluate and provide value add solutions within the hospital’s supplier diversity program to create mutually beneficial relationships with diverse suppliers.”

 

Supplier diversity was born out of a need to provide opportunities to businesses who were once left outside of the procurement process. Being located in an underserved community, Parkland has a proven commitment to addressing its community’s needs and providing innovative solutions. As underserved communities across the country rise so does our overall national well-being, and that is the ultimate end goal.

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