Texas doctors say facility can meet emerging needs

E-Care Urgent Care fashions itself as a quicker alternative to a hospital emergency department.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Nov. 10, 2003.

Hospitals rely on emergency departments to be a main entry point for patients, but emergency care often is viewed as a losing proposition. Two physicians in the Dallas area, however, say emergency care can be profitable if you just eliminate the red tape, and they've decided to test their theory by opening a series of free-standing centers.

Robert Rankins, MD, and Patrick Gibson, MD, have started E-Care Urgent Care Center, a type of hybrid "emergent-urgent care" facility complete with its own laboratory and x-ray technology. They opened their first facility in Frisco, north of Dallas, in May, and they're planning to open three more centers in other nearby cities in the coming year.

The doctors, who are emergency physicians by training, say their facility is equipped and runs like an emergency department, sans the hassles patients normally face when they seek immediate care.

"There's nothing we can't do," Dr. Rankins said. "The only difference is if we had to admit the patient to a doctor, we might need to transfer them."

The center does not receive ambulances, but if a patient walked in with a life-threatening emergency, the doctors said they could stabilize, then transfer. The center closes at 10 p.m. each day, but the doctors are hoping soon to expand to 24-hour care.

The facility, connected to Frisco Medical Center, a small surgical hospital with more than 80 physician owners, has access to some of the hospital's equipment, such as its CT scanner.