Looking to be Hamilton County’s hometown healthcare provider . . .
Riverview Health’s combined ER and urgent care facility in Westfield opened Tuesday, Oct. 23, and is being called a useful and novel idea. In the near future, more Hamilton County residents will have the opportunity to go to a combined Riverview facility as four more of them are brought online in Fishers, Carmel and Nora in the next few years.
On Oct. 25, Riverview broke ground on a new facility in Fishers at 9690 E. 116th St. That will be a free-standing emergency room and urgent care facility. In November, Riverview’s attorneys filed for variances with the City of Carmel for facility in Carmel.
Warren
According to Riverview Health CEO and President Seth Warren, the Fishers facility should open in late summer or early fall of 2019. The Carmel facility could come online in late 2019 or early 2020, but there are too many variables to provide an accurate projection at this time.
“We will also be building three other locations for these free-standing ER/urgent cares as well,” Warren told The Reporter. “We had to file some paperwork for the 146th and Hazel Dell location. We go before one of the committees on the 4th. That will be another free-standing facility, like the Fishers model.”
Their third facility is planned for west Carmel.
“We are in the process of negotiating for property out that way,” Warren said. “The fourth location will be in Nora, so it will be outside of Hamilton County, but certainly serving southern Hamilton County.”
While emergency room visits can result in thousands of dollars in bills, urgent care medical treatment is far less expensive.
Warren said this new combined facility is not something that is yet becoming a standard, but he does know of a similar facility in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas as well as a few other parts of the country.
“There is a large portion of the country that does not have this model,” Warren said. “To me it seems like a no-brainer. People don’t necessarily know what is emergent and what is urgent. The same symptoms could often go either way. Being able to go to one facility and be seen by an emergency room physician and then being billed at the appropriate level of the care provided has not been widespread historically.”
These facilities give Riverview the capability to serve Hamilton County residents in a wider area in a more convenient way.
According to Warren, these new facilities will be like the Westfield model in the combined ER and urgent care, but they will not have inpatient services or a surgical suite. They will have the appropriate imaging, labs and service to support that, but will not offer have inpatient hospital services the way Westfield will in early January 2019.
“Consumers want convenience and accessibility,” Warren said. “We recognize that coming to a hospital campus can sometimes be a little daunting. By spreading the care out and offing multiple venues and access points, it makes it more convenient and accessible for them.”
Riverview recently received an award as one of the top 100 orthopedic surgical facilities in the country by Healthgrades, a company that provides information about physicians, hospitals and health care providers. Healthgrades has amassed information on over 3 million U.S. healthcare providers.
Riverview also received an award for patient experience.
“As we expand our footprint, we are offering a high-quality experience,” Warren said. “From a technology standpoint the Westfield and Noblesville locations have the latest and greatest in terms of imaging equipment. We just got a new spinal guidance system. We have a new linear accelerator for radiation therapy for cancer patients. We invest heavily in technology, we are getting awards for patient experience and quality and we are very customer-friendly with the combined model or ER and urgent care where is takes the guesswork out for the patient.”
Warren said Riverview Health wants to be Hamilton County’s hometown healthcare provider.
“We do this with the local, hometown interaction and experience,” Warren told The Reporter. “What I always say is, ‘The patients we serve live in our community.’ We are going to see our patients at our kids’ baseball games, at the grocery store, at church and at other events and locations. The level of care we provide to them has to have that hometown and neighborly feel because we live with the people who become our patients. We are members of the community as well. We value the patient and make sure their experience is as pleasant as can be when they need help.”