By Benjamin Joe
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
SOUTH LOCKPORT, N.Y. — More than 1,000 patients have been treated at Catholic Health’s temporary emergency department on South Transit Road since its opening a month ago. Health system administrators gathered at the transformed urgent care center Monday to recognize what 80 workers at the site have managed to do in a brief period.
Jennifer Rogers, MD, medical director, reported that every day in July, so far, the facility has treated, on average, 42 patients per day, including an average 10 patients brought in by ambulance.
The path to opening the temporary facility was not smooth. Rogers explained some of the differences between an emergency room and an urgent care facility.
“The urgent care facilities don’t typically accept ambulances,” she said, noting that staff are now meeting ambulances next to the building and wheeling them inside.
Second, Rogers noted, while women do not give birth at an urgent care facility, an emergency department needs to be prepared for all phases of life.
Also, some lab tests are not conducted at urgent care, but an emergency room needs to have those results as soon as possible to determine what doctors will do next — so the necessary equipment was brought in to do them.
“Blood is also available here,” Rogers said. “So, if anyone needs an emergency blood transfusion, we have a process to do that.”
Another example of meeting need is a trailer parked in front of the building where a CT scanner stands ready for imaging. The urgent care facility was equipped for X-ray imaging, but an emergency room needs access to CT imaging as well, Rogers said.
Then there was problem solving and paperwork.
Mark Sullivan, president and CEO of Catholic Health, said that even as New York State approached his organization about opening the temporary emergency department — and filling in where the now-closed Eastern Niagara Hospital left off — there were many regulations to follow, as well as a big rush to equip the site. Among other things, oxygen hookups had to be installed.
“There are so many regulations to open an emergency department. We had to sit with our quality people and the state and the regulators to determine what waivers we needed and we needed a solution to all those waivers,” Sullivan said.
C.J. Urlaub, senior vice president of strategic partnerships in Niagara County, praised the efforts of Mayor Michelle Roman, state Sen. Rob Ortt and Assembly member Mike Norris for making it possible for Catholic Health to fulfill the needs of the community.
Catholic Health’s Lockport Memorial Hospital is expected to open in the fall.
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