Published: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 / Updated: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 07:20 AM
CMC-Steele Creek opens Monday
Check out ‘healthplex' Saturday during open house
STEELE CREEK --
The Steele Creek community will see a new addition Monday unlike any seen before in the area.
Carolinas HealthCare System will open CMC-Steele Creek to patients on 17 acres at 13560 Steelcroft Pkwy. The first of five planned “healthplex” facilities, it will feature a free-standing emergency department and other medical services, including a full-service diagnostic imaging center, laboratory services and medical offices for physicians such as Mecklenburg Medical Group, Charlotte Pediatric Clinic and Piedmont GYN/OB.
“We know it's going to save lives in this community,” said Debra Eident, director of the new facility.
The healthcare pavilion offers everything a hospital emergency room would, and can keep patients up to 24 hours. It will be the fourth free-standing emergency department in North Carolina, and the first in the south Charlotte region. Eident expects admissions not only from Steele Creek, but also Lake Wylie, Gaston County, Tega Cay and Fort Mill.
“A healthcare pavilion is much more than an urgent care center, and can be thought of as a hospital without beds,” said Chris Hummer, president of CMC-Pineville.
Local emergency responders welcome the new emergency facility. Bob Hill, president of the River Hills/Lake Wylie EMS, said CMC-Steele Creek will be a convenient choice. Currently, Hill's squad travels to several hospitals, including a 30 to 40 minute drive to downtown Charlotte or 20 minutes to Rock Hill, Gaston or Pineville.
“This place will only be a couple of minutes,” Hill said. “It'll be great.”
“We wouldn't take strokes, heart attacks, serious head injuries,” he said. “But for a broken arm or leg, stitches, things like that, it'll be a lot closer. It'll be a lot closer for cases that are not very serious.”
Even for serious cases, Hill said, CMC-Steele Creek could be an option to stabilize the patient before transporting them to a local hospital.
The facility will include a helipad and a CT scanner with the latest technology able to scan patients weighing up to 600 pounds.
“There are a lot of CT scanners that cannot accommodate heavier patients, and that's an issue we're seeing a lot with a population that's growing more obese,” Eident said. “They just weren't built to do that.”
CMC-Steele Creek also offers community touches, including local artwork and a community room for public meetings with a capacity of 65 guests, as well as a community care coordinator available to answer questions. A retail pharmacy will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“They system is vast,” Eident said. “We want them to know that those resources are there.”
Eident says with recreational lake activities and a high number of children – with many playing sports – CMC-Steele Creeks will fill a need for service at all hours.
“If things are going to happen, they're going to happen after hours in this community,” she said.
The emergency department, radiology and lab services will open Monday. A week later, the three medical offices will open, followed by the pharmacy Dec. 1 and the community room in mid-December. According to Carolinas HealthCare statistics, only 7 percent of emergency care visits result in admitted patients, meaning the company expects most of the Steele Creek community – which grew by 70 percent from 2000 to 2007 – to be adequately served by the healthplex concept.
“We want this to be a place the public will really enjoy being if they have to come in for emergency care,” Eident said. “We know it's a really stressful time for people.”
CMC-Steele Creek will host an open house and ribbon cutting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at the facility, 13560 Steelecroft Pkwy. The event includes free health screenings, activities such as Taste of Steele Creek, face painting, arts and crafts, inflatable jumpers, clowns and tours of the emergency department and Med Center Air helicopter. For more information, call 704-926-1336.
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