Colorado healthcare provider Centura Health said this week that it plans to open several hybrid centers for both urgent and emergency care in the coming months, touting it as a new model for the system hat could help rein in costs.
Centura said it will open four of these centers throughout the state within the next eight months.
Each facility will be a stand-alone center that will provide both emergency services for serious medical care as well as urgent care services for less severe medical cases. The facilities will also link with the company's physician network, Centura Health Physicians Group, where doctors will be on call to help treat in these emergencies.
[Also: HCA to take over 14 urgent care centers in Las Vegas]
The hope is by combining urgent and emergency services under one building, the system can make sure patients are billed for emergency care when they need it. Patients with immediate but non-life threatening conditions would be directed to urgent care physicians, whose services carry lower costs than the emergency department.
"We are working to make the delivery of care seamless by improving the consistency, continuity and coordination of care," Centura CEO Gary Campbell, said in the announcement. "Primary care providers are at the core of our neighborhood health strategy and these services are available to add another level of convenience."
The hybrid urgent/emergency centers will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The facilities will be stocked with diagnostic equipment including a digital x-ray, CT scan, Ultrasound, EKG and a laboratory for running diagnostic tests.
[Also: Partners HealthCare opens first urgent-care clinic outside of Boston]
Centura, the largest health system in Colorado, runs 16 hospitals and many physician practices, employing more than 6,000 physicians.
More healthcare providers are launching urgent care facilities, as well as stand-alone emergency departments, as a way to offer more convenient care to patients while trying to cut down on costly and sometimes unnecessary emergency room visits.
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