In 2005, North Carolina’s first free-standing ED opened at WakeMed North Healthplex, an existing ambulatory facility offering outpatient surgery, imaging, rehabilitation and physician offices. The new ED featured 14 bays, 24-7 laboratory, pharmacy and expanded imaging, including 24-7 availability of CT scans. Since then, WakeMed opened a second free-standing ED, have received CON approval for a third and are in the appeals process to gain approval for two more.
Growth of freestanding EDs, of course, are a threat to the back door of all acute care hospitals. It is another whittling of the full-service hospital. Does this mean such hospitals face the same demise as did department stores of the past that are now replaced by boutique retailers?
Modern Physician explores the dispute surrounding private, freestanding emergency departments. Private companies can operate their freestanding EDs without regulatory oversight. Hospitals argue this advantage compromises quality of care, while the Joint Commission says private EDs provide efficient and quality care. At least one private ED company welcomes more regulation, and one state is considering legislation this year that would increase oversight of all freestanding EDs.
Check out the video on The Doctor’s Channel to see further discussion via video.
Filed Under: News & Careers
Tags: free-standing emergency rooms, hospital competition
About the Author
From sports journalist to editor of an international trade magazine to Marketing Director for 3 companies before founding WBK Marketing, eventually one of the 50 largest promotional marketing agencies in America. Dale has pioneered "contextual marketing" for successful brands at P&G, Pepsi, Disney, Toshiba, Compaq, Imation, 3M and many regional hospitals and healthcare insurers.
“From my days in college as a pre-med student and working as a transporter for Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, to developing marketing programs for hospitals and health insurers, I have always had a passion for how science and medicine can help bring sick people back to health. Hospitals are incredibly complex organizations, with two large clinical teams (doctors and nurses) and many highly skilled specialists and therapists. There are times when various groups working in medical centers have opposing view points that can lead to dissonance, which at the extreme can potentially impair patient safety and quality outcomes. The work we do at Compass Clinical Consulting guides many of these hospitals through contentious issues, process failure or breakdown with a negative impact on financial stability. Our department of education and information services has been assembled to produce high-value content for hospital leaders. Our goal is to help these leaders transform their organizations into better hospitals by reducing the cost of delivering safe, quality healthcare.”
Dale has been an active blogger since 2004 when he launched The Perfect Customer Experience (www.perfectcem.com); recently recognized as one of Top 20 CRM blogs and on healthcare improvement (www.better-hospitals.com) where we now communicate about issues that impact making better American hospitals.
Case studies to learn more about ways in which Compass Clinical has worked to create better American hospitals.