Baptist, Emerus to Open 4 Emergency Hospitals in TX

Baptist Health System and Emerus announced Monday that they will partner to open four emergency hospitals in the San Antonio area.

"This gives us the opportunity to provide a broader range of services, and when we partner with a group like Baptist who has a lot of infrastructure in place we aren't starting from ground zero," Toby Hamilton, MD, CEO of privately held Emerus told HealthLeaders Media. "There is certainly a prestige with the Baptist brand, and we view this as an opportunity to get into that market, and the timing is just right."

The project calls for the construction of three new buildings, and a retrofitting of an existing building to house the emergency hospitals, at a cost of about $10 million for each hospital. Each will have about 10 inpatient beds, and will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and staffed with board-certified emergency medicine physicians, registered nurses, radiation technologists, and other clinical specialists. The emergency rooms will be equipped like conventional, large hospital-based emergency departments, with on-site imaging services including X-ray, CT scan, and ultrasound, and in-house labs.

Emerus was started six years ago by six emergency physicians. It operates two emergency hospitals and three 24-hour emergency rooms in Texas. Hamilton says The Woodlands, TX-based company is now negotiating with other healthcare organizations to open additional emergency hospitals.