24-Hour Urgent Cares Replace Two Michigan ERs

DETROIT — St. John Health officials announced yesterday that they will convert two Detroit-area emergency rooms at two separate sites into 24-hour urgent care centers.

Patients who arrive at these urgent care centers and need emergency room services will be brought to nearby hospitals.

The emergency rooms received a combined 17,000 visits annually, and employ 50 full- and part-time workers.

The switch to urgent care will best serve the community, Bob Hoban, chief strategy officer for St. John Health, told The Detroit News.

"Really this is not taking away from the community," he said. "It's an addition."

St. John officials told The Detroit News that they evaluated patient use of the emergency rooms and found that the “vast majority” of visits were more appropriate for an urgent care facility than an emergency room.

Hoban added that the community would have better access to urgent care, and that urgent care visits are three times cheaper than visits to the emergency room.

The change might result in a layoff of about five people, Hoban said.

To read the full Detroit News story, click here.

Source: The Detroit News

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