Cardenas, Bernal: Urgent Care, Not Expensive Care
EDINBURG, Texas - There is a trend among hospital groups to introduce smaller facilities such as micro hospitals, stand alone emergency rooms, and urgent care centers.\xa0
DHR Health is putting its emphasis on urgent care centers, making the case that they are more affordable. They have so far opened such centers in Edinburg and McAllen and are slated to open a new one in Mission in mid-February.
In the attached podcast, Dr. Carlos Cardenas, chairman and co-founder of DHR Health, and Dr. Cruz Alberto Bernal, a family medicine physician at DHR, make the case for urgent care centers.
\u201cI don\u2019t really want patients to come to my hospital for primary care,\u201d Dr. Cardenas said. \u201cIf they can achieve their goal of maintaining health or preventing a health issue and we can make that happen at times when they cannot see their primary care physician, or if they don\u2019t have a primary care physician, the access should be through an urgent care center.\u201d
Cardenas argued that urgent care facilities are more affordable and provide the services that are needed in an accessible way.\xa0
Asked about free-sanding emergency departments, Cardenas said: \u201cI call it expensive care, not urgent care. Urgent care is accessible and affordable, free standing emergency care is expensive care for the same heath care delivery.\u201d
Dr. Bernal said: \u201cAbout two-thirds of the ER visits in the U.S. could be treated in an urgent care facility.\u201d
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