The following is an excerpt from an excellent article written by Nick Peters, Contributor to Dallas News. This article defines the free-standing emergency center business model as well as details many of the advantages a facility like ours has over the traditional hospital emergency room.
That new free-standing emergency center in your neighborhood might look like just a mini-hospital or a shiny urgent care facility, but it is not. Free-standing emergency centers are equipped for full emergency care, and they offer patients an alternative to crowded hospital emergency rooms. There is absolutely no evidence indicating that free-standing emergency centers produce poorer patient outcomes than hospital-based ERs. Nor is there any data suggesting patients are more at risk by seeking treatment at a free-standing facility. The same clinical quality standards and goals used in hospitals are used in free-standing emergency centers. These results are monitored closely to ensure the highest possible level of care, and it is not uncommon for free-standing centers to outperform hospital ERs…
