Residents on the town’s East Aspect will quickly have emergency well being care providers.
Baptist Well being System is opening a 24/7 hospital close to Rigsby Avenue and Loop 410 on Monday.
The soon-to-be opened Baptist Neighborhood Hospital-Rigsby could have an 11,000-square-foot emergency division that accepts ambulances, together with a triage room, 10 examination rooms and 24-hour nursing stations. The hospital will even have CT, ultrasound and x-ray providers, together with in-house lab providers for being pregnant, strep throat and different medical assessments.
Physicians and nurses will be capable to provide life assist providers for coronary heart assaults, however won’t provide inpatient care, mentioned Baptist officers Wednesday at an occasion celebrating the opening.
Liz Diaz Drake, the hospital’s director, mentioned sufferers could be evaluated based mostly on their wants and the way quickly they wanted care.
“We’re smaller and we don’t have that inflow of individuals like an even bigger hospital,” she mentioned. “We’ll attempt to get you again there (in an examination room) as quickly as potential.”
Diaz Drake added that the hospital will be capable to deal with most well being points and will stabilize and switch sufferers to close by amenities if extra intensive care is required.
The brand new hospital is opening in an space that has lengthy lacked medical amenities.
In keeping with a 2022 article from the San Antonio Specific-Information, medical amenities are largely situated within the downtown, South Texas Medical Middle and on the northern elements of San Antonio.
Metropolis council member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who represents the encompassing District 2, mentioned in an announcement that he was excited concerning the new hospital and famous that the neighborhood has “lengthy felt disparate well being outcomes and the impacts of underinvestment.”
McKee-Rodriguez mentioned many residents should drive to different elements of the town to entry well being sources. “This website is in an ideal location to serve an space that experiences increased charges of bronchial asthma, diabetes, and different persistent well being outcomes,” he mentioned.
Baptist Well being System, operates six acute-care hospitals within the metropolis, and is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp.
The brand new Rigsby neighborhood location is a part of a partnership with Emerus, an organization that focuses on working neighborhood hospitals in underserved areas, based on a press launch. Baptist and Emerus function 10 such neighborhood hospitals within the metropolis.
Baptist Well being System’s market CEO, Invoice Waechter mentioned the system is planning on including extra neighborhood hospitals in San Antonio, but it surely was too early to specify a subsequent location.
Waechter mentioned that with regards to emergency conditions, time is crucial.
“We’re proud to serve the East Aspect with well timed, compassionate care that might save lives,” Waechter mentioned. “The comfort of being within the neighborhood additionally seamlessly connects sufferers to the broader, extra specialised providers our system of Baptist hospitals throughout the town can present.”
Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, whose Precinct 4 contains the brand new hospital, mentioned whereas he welcomes the brand new hospital, extra work must be achieved to carry specialised well being care providers to the world, similar to psychological well being and occupational remedy suppliers.
“We’re seeing unprecedented investments in well being care — the best well being care investments within the space’s historical past,” Calvert mentioned.
McKee-Rodriguez mentioned the brand new hospital is only the start and extra well being care sources have to be directed to the East Aspect, however he famous it was an essential step.
“Whereas we nonetheless have a lot extra to do to deal with the well being care want in our metropolis, particularly as entry to well being care is being stripped by the Trump administration, this will probably be a landmark, transformational asset for people on the East Aspect,” he mentioned.
