ThisWeek: Knowledge is power when choosing the 'right' medical facility

Central Ohio residents have an abundance of options when it comes to immediate medical care. Several freestanding emergency departments, urgent care facilities and primary care medical office buildings have joined more than a dozen traditional hospitals in Columbus and its surrounding communities in the past decade.

OhioHealth has five traditional hospitals with another opening in Grove City in the coming year. Along with eight urgent care centers, OhioHealth also is in the process of opening six new freestanding emergency departments, or FSEDs. With FSEDs already in Lewis Center, Pickerington and Westerville, the new Hilliard facility is now up and running with one in Reynoldsburg following on December 13. The centers in Obetz, Powell, New Albany and Worthington will open in 2018.

With various different options of care to choose from, patients might find it difficult to know when to go where. OhioHealth is making an effort to educate patients and communities on this topic.

“We are working to ensure consumers get the right care, in the right place, by educating (patients) on how to appropriately utilize emergency care as part of our continuum of services that includes primary and urgent care,” Mark Foran, MD, senior medical director of ambulatory care for OhioHealth told ThisWeek reporters Kevin Corvo and Sarah Sole in an article that ran on the front page of all 23 editions of ThisWeek.

Lewis Sanderow, senior director of marketing for OhioHealth, added, “We are using a combination of traditional media, digital (outreach) and direct mail in each community to create awareness and integrate education about when to choose primary care, urgent care and emergency care.”

Foran told the ThisWeek reporters that these new community-based FSEDs allow doctors to treat patients closer to where they live as well as improving the continuity of care.

“These new (FSEDs) increase convenience and bring a broader spectrum of care,” Foran said. “It is more convenient for our patients by providing emergency care where they live and work and reduces the wait time for patients.”

To learn more about OhioHealth emergency care, please click here.  Click on the front page image to read the entire article.