Hospital system pilots state’s first hybrid ER and urgent care centers, offering 24/7 imaging
A hospital system is piloting Washington state’s first hybrid emergency room and urgent care center, offering 24/7 imaging services in a bid to bring down costs.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health announced the initiative on Friday, forming a partnership with Dallas-based Intuitive Health, which helps hospitals open such facilities. Those involved hope to open several centers across the Puget Sound region in the next four years, with construction beginning on the first in the coming months.
Each center will include a radiology suite, equipped with X-ray and multi-slice CT scanners, open around the clock.
“Our new hybrid ER and urgent care facilities will not only simplify the experience for our patients, ensuring they receive the right level of care, but will help to reduce the overall cost of care, including out-of-pocket expenses,” Ketul Patel, CEO of 11-hospital Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, said Feb. 11. “Bringing high-quality emergent and urgent care closer to our patients will also help alleviate some of the strain on our hospitals as we continue to experience increasing emergency department visits.”
Those involved pointed to a 2017 study, which found that patients seek care at the ER nearly 50% of the time because of access and availability. Virginia Mason said its patients will no longer have to determine whether they require urgent or emergent care. Both will be offered under the same roof, with a board-certified emergency doc on hand to examine and triage individuals to the right care. The system said it will only bill patients for the level of services they receive, “ultimately saving the patient money time and peace of mind.”
Intuitive Health has been around since 2008 and said it has “pioneered” this hybrid model. The company has partnered with several other health systems in the U.S., in states including Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Delaware, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas and now Washington.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.