east valley
Volume 2 Issue 06 Mesa, AZ
August 25, 2019
Chandler ‘micro-hospital’ looking to shake up medicine BY KEVIN REAGAN Tribune Staff Writer
D
IN THE BIZ
r. Ronald Genova has a specific way of describing the type of patient that should come to his emergency room. “You’re sick, but you’re not that sick. You don’t need to be in the major hospital,” he said. Chest pains, fractures and sprains are the types of ailments he can easily treat at Phoenix ER and Medical Hospital. But the highway accident victims with serious trauma should probably go to the bigger hospitals. It’s a niche market Genova and his colleagues are attempting to target with their free-standing emergency room, located on the corner of Dobson and Queen Creek roads. They can offer more services than an urgent care center, but they’re not quite on the same level as a Banner Health hospital. Phoenix ER is somewhere in the middle — an area Genova thinks lets them still treat most health care needs. “We do 80 percent of what a major hospital does,” Genova said. “We’re here to treat the low-to-moderate common things that happen in the community.” Unlike the bigger facilities, Phoenix ER is independently owned by the doctors who work there — making Genova not only a care provider, but the hospital’s CEO. It’s a business model that Genova Public Notices ............... page 2 © Copyright, 2019 East Valley Tribune
Phoenix ER and Medical Hospital in south Chandler aims for those patients who are too sick for an urgi-care but who don’t need treatment in a big hospital. (Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Staff Photographer)
hopes could potentially shake up the entire health care industry. “We’re looking to change the face of medicine,” he said. Free-standing emergency rooms were developed in the 1970s as a solution for improving access to health care in rural areas. The idea was to have a full-service emergency room operate in a location separate from a large hospital. They could be independently-owned, like Phoenix ER, or run by a bigger health care corporation. These facilities have grown in popularity over the last decade, popping up more rapidly in Texas and Colorado. According to the American Journal of Emergency (USPS 004-616) is published weekly
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Medicine, the number of free-standing emergency rooms grew by 62 percent between 2009 and 2015. As crowding in traditional emergency rooms has long been an issue in the health care world, a stand-alone facility was considered a strategy to divert patients away from the big hospitals. Genova said his facility can offer a more enjoyable and efficient experience than the bigger emergency rooms. “No one wants to sit in an emergency department for eight hours, getting coughed on and getting the flu,” the doctor said. “You want to be seen timely. You want your tests done reasonably.” Phoenix ER is designed to look almost like a “micro-hospital.” It’s got patient Subscriptions are $26 for 2 years, $14 for one year. Periodicals postage paid at Phoenix, AZ 85026.
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