From the Bedside to the Boardroom

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

By Roberto Hugo González

Not even two decades ago, people from the Valley and Mexico used to travel to Houston to look for specialized care and services not found here. Things have really changed, to the point that the South Texas area or better known as the Rio Grande Valley is the favorite place for residents of Mexico and locals when they need medical treatment.

The hospitals of the area have great demand for a very important reason; the technology and talent available in major cities can now be found here. “There is no reason why anyone should have to go to Houston or somewhere else,” Dr. Carlos Cardenas chairman of Doctors Hospital at Renaissance told Mega Metropolis Health and Fitness.

He said that as for most of the care that people need; they can do all of those things here. He added that short of needing a liver transplant or certain very specialized procedures only performed in university hospitals, people rarely have to leave the area.

Dr. Carlos Cardenas was born in McAllen and graduated in 1977 from McAllen High School. He is proud to be a Bulldog. He went away to college in Sherman, Texas and later to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to obtain his MD. “I went to Scott and White in Temple Texas for my three years of internal medicine and three years of Gastroenterology and in July of 1991, I moved back to McAllen to practice.”

Dr. Cardenas practices Gastroenterology, and is the Doctors Hospital at Renaissance Chairman of the Board of Trustees and is one of the founders of the hospital. The hospital has been a success from day one and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. “The key to that is the vision that we had at the very beginning,” Dr. Cardenas added. “I knew then what we know now, this is a very progressive community, and there is a lot of growth potential in our area. I felt very committed to coming back to South Texas to practice medicine,” he stated.

As Dr. Cardenas was growing up, he knew the area did not have the specialists in the different medical fields. He felt that it was very important to come back and give back to the community that made it possible for him to go.

Dr. Cardenas said that there is no reason why the valley should not have some of the technologies and availability of certain forms of medical treatment and therapy that are available in other communities like San Antonio, Austin, Houston, or Dallas. Dr. Cardenas and the group that started Doctors Hospital at Renaissance planned from the very start to bring those technologies to the area, taking into consideration that the medical talent was also here.

“I also felt strongly that it is important for a physician to be in a position to make decisions about what care is delivered and how it is delivered. Having the ability to make the financial decisions at the same time you come up with an amalgam that allows you to go from the bedside to the boardroom and make decisions,” Dr. Cardenas stated.

He emphasized that the impact to the patient care is directly avoiding going through a committee. Dr. Cardenas’ experience in the past was frustrating especially when he requested a piece of equipment and was told time after time that there was no room in the budget this year, the next year will roll around and again the answer was there is no room in the budget. “Well when I am the one helping to make the budgets and make those decisions the buck stops here,” Dr. Cardenas stated.

Dr. Cardenas went on to say that at Doctors Hospital the CEO is a practicing anesthesiologist, Dr. Lawrence Gelman, who sees patients every day. In his case, Dr. Cardenas is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and a practicing gastroenterologist.

“I see patients everyday making my rounds at the hospital and I am in touch and so are all of the members of the different committees that make up our leadership team at the hospital,” he stated.

Dr. Cardenas says that they find efficiencies because of the relationship directly with the patient, which means no middleman. Aside from that, he said that they use sound business practices and principles, and a good business strategy.

“Because of the way our board is composed and our involvement in our community with people like Mr. Alonzo Cantu, Larry Safir, and Rene Garza; they are individuals who are business people and understand business,” Dr. Cardenas stated.

According to Dr. Cardenas, they are not real top heavy in administrators. “Mr. Alonzo Cantu is Chairman of our Finance Committee and he has tremendous business acumen and insight that helps us run the hospital,” he added.

The success of Doctors Hospital at Renaissance is based on several key elements; the physicians take a very active role in the care that is delivered. “The other reason for our success is that our staff feels empowered to come to us with ideas that promote the delivery of high quality healthcare. They help us to design patient care areas. They were instrumental in our design that we came up with for the Women’s Hospital,” Dr. Cardenas stated.

Mega Metropolis Health & Fitness had the opportunity to witness that family and roots mean a lot to Dr. Cardenas, which is why he came back. He considers McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley his heart and soul.

Dr. Cardenas is very proud of being from McAllen. He is related to many people since his parents come from two old families from centuries ago. “On my father’s side, we can trace the lineage all the way to 1740.”

He continued to say that in the 1754 census of Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, they were counted as one of the Garcia’s. “My father is Cardenas Garcia, so our ancestor was there; he came with that expedition to colonize Nuevo Santander,” Dr. Cardenas stated.

What is now Tamaulipas, the Mexican state adjacent to south Texas was first incorporated as a separate province of New Spain in 1746 with the name Nuevo Santander.

Dr. Cardenas and the group that came together to build something special did this with a vision, to bring the best and to be able to provide a place for all the families of the Rio Grande Valley to have a level of care that may not be found otherwise.

“I believe that we have been able to set the standard, raise the bar and we have our competitors trying to compete with us and to achieve the same level of service we provide. I think that’s what a free market is all about”, Dr. Cardenas finalized.

Specialties: Gastroenterology, Internal Medicine

Medical School: University of Texas Med Branch at Galveston

Residency: Scott and White Memorial Hospital

Group Practice: South Texas Gastroenterology Associates

Licensed in Texas