Dive Brief:
- In an effort to divert patients who previously went to the emergency department for non-emergency care, a Seattle hospital has provided startup money for an urgent care company to open a weekend and after-hours clinic.
- Swedish Medical Center Foundation is funding Country Doctor Community Health Centers to create and run the off-hours clinic.
- The Foundation is supplying Country Doctor with $200,000 in startup funds, and is leasing the building where the clinic will be based to Country Doctor for one dollar per year. The clinic will provide its own staff.
Dive Insight:
While anyone is presumably welcome at the clinic, Country Doctor facilities focus largely on low income patients on Medicaid or without insurance. That leaves the patients who require in-hospital care to Swedish, allowing it to focus more on its core mission, participants said. And thanks to Medicaid expansion, the clinic should get more insured patients in the door, which will help keep it alive.