Overlake 24/7 Urgent Care on 5708 E. Lake Sammamish Blvd., Issaquah is not far away.
| Swedish Issaquah Medical Center ER opens July 14. 751 N.E. Blakely Drive, in the Issaquah Highlands, just off I-90 at Exit 18. Read More >> |
"Open 24/7, we're available to treat problems requiring immediate and specialized attention, such as chest pain, severe cuts and burns, broken bones, sports injuries, allergic reactions, food poisoning, work-related injuries and others. According to a mailer sent to Eastside homes, "...you'll get right in without a wait and a doctor will see you in 30 minutes or less." - Swedish website, 7/12/10
As part of a 55,000-square-foot medical center campus, the ER includes:
•14 exam rooms
•Quiet rooms available for families
•14 exam rooms
•Quiet rooms available for families
•X-ray, ultrasound, CT scan and MRI diagnostic services available 24/7
•Laboratory services on-site
*The time (12:01am) hasn't been verified.•Laboratory services on-site
When you don't have an emergency, a close-in, less expensive, alternative to ER is Overlake's "Urgent Care". OVERLAKE MEDICAL CLINICS - URGENT CARE is open 24/7 on a walk-in basis.
•5708 E. Lake Sammamish Pkwy. SE, Issaquah, WA 98029 (at the corner of E. Lake Sammamish Pkwy SE and SE Black Nugget Road)
Reported by Bob Yoder
It is rewarding to see Swedish closing one of their stand-alone ER's. These ER's drain insurance cos. resources and the consumers who must buy their policies.
ReplyDeleteHospitals use stand-alone ER's to attract good-paying patients with insurance. It's about marketing and gaining share, and little about improving the quality of healthcare.
These ER's have millions of dollars tied up in imaging, laboratories and other capital. Services are duplicated with hospitals and competing outpatient imaging centers.
Evergreen Hospital is sorry example of this excess. Five years ago the Hospital used taxpayer levy monies to finance their new Hospital ER. The hospital claims they don't have occupancy data, but it's known in the community their Emerg. Dept. is operating at ~60% capacity.
Yet, when Evergreen found out Swedish was moving into Redmond to capture the plateau business they rushed into expanding Evergreen Medical Clinic to include an ER.
The system is broken. Kudos to Overlake for not getting sucked into ER marketing. I find their 24/7 Urgent Care service an excellent alternative for most health needs in our family.
Is there anyone out there who couldn't live without a free-standing ER?
I believe the free-standing ER's are in place to provide emergent care to those when time to care is critical, 10 minutes less without proper care in an ambulance can actually mean life or death in some cases.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that as population increases in such areas, those free-standing ER's create a perfect landing zone to build a medical center around an existing, well-known facility. In addition, the stand-alone ER's create a wise business incentive that can meet the needs of the community and the hospital network. Hospitals are a business. They must make money or at least break even.
They may be costly but nonetheless I would argue that there has been at least 1 life saved by each of these free-standing ER's..
How many lives does it take to justify the cost of building the facility?