New $8M health-care facility in Edinburg

Eduardo “Eddie” Olivarez (center), chief administrative officer for the Hidalgo County Health and Human Services, leads the ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday at the Hidalgo County Public Health Facility, located at 1211 S. 28th Ave. in Edinburg. Also shown are Hidalgo County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ellie Torres (third from right), Precinct 3 Commissioner Everardo “Ever” Villarreal (second from right) and Precinct 1 Commissioner David Fuentes (right). Abigail Ollave/THE RIDER

On Thursday, Hidalgo County unveiled its newest achievement with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Public Health Facility.

The facility is located at 1211 S. 28th Ave. in Edinburg. 

The $8 million project was funded by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department in partnership with the Hidalgo County Urban County Program.

“The state-of-the-art, 10,000 square foot laboratory was constructed within Precinct 4 and is located directly adjacent to the Hidalgo County Health & Human Services Department,” a Nov. 15 news release states. “The facility will be a Biosafety Level 3 Lab. The facility also incorporates a medical clinic and office space tailored to accommodate laboratory staff and specialists.”

The facility has a state-of-the-art BSL-3 certificate with the ability to conduct microbiology, molecular, chemistry, hematology and mycobacteriology tests.

It will be equipped with cutting-edge technology for SARS-CoV2 testing and other virology diseases.

The lab will also include bacteriology testing equipment to identify and report susceptibilities of organisms, as well as serology-testing capabilities and other associated services.

“It was on April 11th of 2022 that we broke ground on this facility,” said Ellie Torres, Hidalgo County Precinct 4 commissioner. “… The Hidalgo County Public Health laboratory facility will be home to expert health-care workers and first responders that serve Hidalgo County residents year-round. These individuals will work on some of the toughest and most challenging times to ensure that the public health and safety needs are met.”

Torres said COVID-19 was eye-opening for everyone.

“While COVID-19 hit us like a ton of bricks as a worldwide pandemic, it exposed our community, our state, our world to what can happen when we are not prepared,” she said. “While we lost many lives to this dreadful disease and while so many continue to feel the effects of the times, we can agree that COVID also brought opportunities to improve and strengthen our communities through the funding afforded to so many counties such as ours.”

Torres said many people from the county and external stakeholders sat down to conceptualize a facility that could offer preparedness and real-time support for COVID-19 and any other health-care crisis in the future.

“Now, in the seventh most populous county in Texas, we have a facility like no other,” said Richard Cortez, Hidalgo County judge. “So that’s what teamwork can do. That’s the dedication we can do.”

Eduardo “Eddie” Olivarez, chief administrative officer for the Hidalgo County Health and Human Services,  thanked the efforts of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and the Hidalgo County Urban County Program for making the facility a reality.

“This is a first in the nation,” Olivarez said. “… It is something that has not happened anywhere else.”

He said the goal is to grow the future scientists, nurses and keep them in the Rio Grande Valley.

“And the way we do that is by having facilities like this and working closely with our community with the goal of helping our indigent care population, the core of our community, and having them to have access to low-cost public health analysis … and this lab is part of that piece,” Olivarez said.

UTRGV partnered with the Hidalgo County Public Health Facility and students pursuing their bachelor’s or master’s degree in medical laboratory sciences “will have access to be interns here while they’re working on their graduate work and getting access to unique opportunities here,” Olivarez said.

Zuleika Morales-Romer, HUD field office director, said she was in the groundbreaking for the facility two years ago and seeing the results make her happy. She said Hidalgo County lost over 4,000 people during COVID-19.

“I think 4,000 people could have filled this entire parking lot,” Morales-Romero said. “So that’s a lot of people to lose. And now, just to know that you have a facility that is going to prevent future, hopefully you never have a COVID again, but some things will happen and that’s going to be able to be addressed here.”

She said Hidalgo County could have invested the money in different ways but they decided to invest in the community “to cause a long-term impact, increase employment, increase your UTRGV students to not move from Edinburg and go to, I don’t know, San Antonio, Dallas and stay here. That is quite an investment.”

Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said public health laboratory testing is at the heart of public health response.

“It is so exciting to see this new public health lab capacity in Hidalgo County, the new access for local testing of vaccine-preventable diseases, for respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, HIV and mosquito-borne diseases that is going to allow for faster public health action here in this county,” Shuford said.

The Hidalgo County Public Health Facility will open its doors to the public in the summer. 

For more updates, visit the Hidalgo County Health and Human Resources website at www.hchd.org.