Soon, Laredo residents will have another location to receive emergency care like the care they have come to expect from Doctors Hospital of Laredo. Scheduled to open in summer of 2019, Doctors Hospital Emergency Room Saunders will deliver 24-hour a day emergency care at 1300 Saunders Street (1301 E. Olive Street).
“As Laredo grows, we need to grow along with it,” says James Resendez, CEO of Doctors Hospital. “We want to be there for the Laredo community by offering emergency services in the neighborhoods where our patients live.”
Joining the ED at Doctors Hospital of Laredo and Doctors Hospital Emergency Room South, the Doctors Hospital Emergency Room Saunders will operate under the hospital’s license. This commitment to the Laredo community runs deep with a $9 million investment in the new facility, which will feature six exam rooms, three rapid medical exam spaces and three internal waiting spaces along with on-site imaging services including computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, X-ray and laboratory services.
“By opening a second location in central Laredo, we’re giving the community another alternative for emergency care in that region,” says Associate Administrator Andrew Wilson, MHA.
The goal of the design and layout of the new freestanding emergency department (FED) is to deliver an ideal patient experience. An open-concept space will help improve communication between caregivers to provide patient-centered care quickly and efficiently. If patients need a higher level of care than the FED can provide, they’ll be transferred to Doctors Hospital or the hospital of their choice.
Along with providing on-site radiology and lab testing for emergency patients, the lab and radiology facilities will be open to the public: Just walk in with a doctor’s order to complete the test.
Though the new FED is separate from the main hospital, patients receive the same heartfelt, thoughtful care they’d receive at the main ED at Doctors Hospital. Wilson singles out the nurses in particular: “The compassion with which care is delivered by the nursing staff is second to none. They just exude compassion — I’ve never seen anything like it in my career.”