We caught up with Stefanie Nelson, the director of project development and operations with Excellence ER, to get more information about the 24-hour emergency room, which is coming to Lakewood this fall.
Excellence ER originally figured they’d open in Skillman-Live Oak shopping center in October, but now they’re hoping to open earlier than that, Nelson says. They haven’t started construction yet, but since they don’t have to build from the ground up, they don’t expect the finish-out to take long.
Excellence ER started in Houston a couple years ago, and there are two locations in the Houston area (although in Houston it’s called Dow Emergency). The Lakewood location is a part of an expansion, which will also include locations in Plano and San Antonio.
Excellence is a “free-standing emergency room,” Nelson says. Which means it will be a full-service ER that operates under its own license. It will have a radiology department, which includes equipment for CT scans and ultrasounds. It will also have its own lab and pharmacy.
“We’re not a trauma center,” Nelson clarifies. “If someone comes in with life-threatening trauma, we do what we can, but we know when we need to send someone to a trauma hospital. We have a transfer agreement with trauma hospitals near us. So we would send them to a facility near us that is capable of handling that.”
The other thing Nelson stressed is the difference between an urgent care and an emergency room. “An urgent care is basically a doctor’s office with extended hours,” she says. “An emergency room is for emergencies. You can’t go to an emergency room unless it’s an emergency.”
And the biggest differences between an Excellence emergency room and a hospital emergency room is that there’s no wait. Plus, the main lobby is designed by an interior designer. “It’s not your typical, clinical feel,” she says.
Cost wise, Nelson says Excellence is “competitive with an ER.”
“It depends on what you’re there for,” Nelson says. “If you have something going on with your stomach, it might be less costly to go to an urgent care or your family doctor than an emergency room, but that’s pretty typical across the board.”
Excellence takes private insurances, worker’s comp and self-pay. Right now, they don’t take Medicare or Medicaid, Nelson says. “Free-standing emergency rooms are not recognized by Medicare/Medicaid in the state of Texas yet,” she explains.
For more information, check out the website.
