Medical City Dallas Hospital

h showed that as of 1972 when the development was planned, 85 percent of all MDs in Dallas County lived within 15 minutes'driving of the new complex. Estimates of the cost at the announcement of the project on April 6, 1972, were that the complex would cost $20 million ($113 million in 2015 dollars). Surveys as of early 1972 showed that prior to the opening of the hospital, Dallas had six hospital beds per 1000 people, while eight cities of comparable size averaged just over 9.1 beds per 1000 people. The 14-story, 367-bed hospital had 78 physicians on the medical staff and enough staff to care for an 85 percent occupancy rate. In describing the original plan, co-managing partner Robert J. Wright touted the updated 20th-century concept of combining hospital-related facilities on the same site with the hospital itself: "For too long, many doctors have had to practice 20th century medicine in 19th century facilities, with their offices at one location, their hospital at another, lab, X-ray and other vital services at still another, and all at great distances from each other and from their homes." Additional features of the design included separate entrances for patients and for doctors to facilitate doctors' ability to "from their entrance, go directly to ancillary services or make rounds in the hospital, and then proceed to their offices," as well as the location of doctors' offices nearest to the most relevant department for their specialties, such as locating the cardiologists' offices next to the ECG and stress laboratories." A second phase of construction commenced in 1977 with the building of an additional 9-story tower called Medical City II, enabling the doubling of the physician-tenant population.