Innovative Health Care Facility Opens in Ocoee

GuideWell Emergency Doctors will open the doors of its newest location on Sunday, offering residents of west Orlando an innovative, cost-effective solution for both urgent and emergency medical needs. The health care facility located across from West Oaks Mall at 9580 West Colonial Drive in Ocoee provides an alternative to overcrowded, high-cost emergency rooms by combining the convenience and low-cost of an urgent care clinic with the technology and medical personnel associated with a hospital ER.  

Staffed by board-certified emergency medicine physicians and bilingual staff, GuideWell Emergency Doctors is equipped with 21 examination rooms and on-site diagnostic equipment including CT scan, x-ray, ultrasound and certified labs, eliminating the need to send patients to other locations for diagnostic services or to wait hours for results.

High Quality, Personal Care at More Affordable Prices

The average cost of an emergency room visit is $2000, according to the National Institutes of Health, however GuideWell Emergency Doctors treats similar cases for approximately $400.

“There are more than 136 million visits to an ER each year in the U.S., according to the CDC, but less than 12 percent of those result in a patient being admitted for treatment. GuideWell Emergency Doctors is here to offer high quality, efficient care that is more personal and affordable than going to an emergency room,” said Prakash Patel, M.D., Chief Operating Officer of GuideWell and President of GuideWell Health. “On average, treatment at GuideWell Emergency Doctors costs patients one-third of the cost of seeking treatment at a hospital emergency room for their major medical issues.”

GuideWell Emergency Doctors also strives to make understanding health care costs easier for patients. As part of the patient experience, the facilities provide transparent pricing to its patients, who are typically made aware how much their visits and treatments will cost before any services are started. Patients also receive only one bill for all diagnostic evaluations, procedures, lab work, physician examinations and other services provided while at the facility, unlike a visit to most traditional emergency rooms which result in multiple invoices from different groups. GuideWell Emergency Doctors accepts most insurance plans or patients can pay on their own.  

Upon discharge, GuideWell Emergency Doctors coordinates care directly with the patient’s primary care physician and can provide timely referrals to specialists or facilitate admissions directly into a hospital, when clinically appropriate, all while ensuring the patient remains within their insurance plan’s network of providers to keep costs down.

Less time waiting and convenient hours

GuideWell Emergency Doctors understands patients’ time is precious and works to keep wait times at a minimum to see a doctor, receive treatment or get diagnostic testing results. The average wait time to see one of the board-certified emergency doctors is only 20 minutes, and the average length of a visit to GuideWell Emergency Doctors is one hour. By comparison, 85 percent of patients spend more than an hour in a hospital emergency room and 60 percent spend more than two hours, according to the CDC.

GuideWell Emergency Doctors also offers convenient hours seven days a week including Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Public invited to grand opening celebration

The public is invited to a grand opening celebration of the new GuideWell Emergency Doctors at 9580 West Colonial Drive in Ocoee on Saturday, January 21, from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The grand opening will include free food, bike helmet giveaway, finger printing by local police, health screenings, games, facility tours, chats with emergency doctors and live entertainment by WXXL 106.7 as well as raffles to win tickets to the New Kids on The Block Tour with Paula Abdul and Boyz II Men, a pair of bicycles, a theme park ticket package and a FitBit. More information about the grand opening celebration is available online at guidewellemergency.com.

The new Ocoee facility is the third GuideWell Emergency Doctors location. GuideWell Health teamed with Crucial Care to introduce GuideWell Emergency Doctors to the Orlando market in December 2014 with the opening of its location in Winter Park at Lakeside, across from Trader Joe’s. Its second facility east of Orlando at 1706 North Semoran Blvd. opened in August 2015.

About GuideWell Emergency Doctors

GuideWell Emergency Doctors, LLC, was formed in 2014 by GuideWell Health, a business unit of GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation (GuideWell). The innovative medical facilities provide a high-quality, cost-effective alternative for unscheduled medical needs currently serving the Orlando market. The facilities are staffed by board certified emergency medicine physicians and medical staff capable of treating both major medical conditions and minor urgent care needs for patients of all ages. The facilities are operated by Jacksonville-based Crucial Care. For more information, visit guidewellemergency.com.

About GuideWell

GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation (GuideWell) is a not-for-profit mutual holding company and the parent to a family of forward-thinking companies focused on transforming health care. The GuideWell organization includes the leading health insurance company in Florida, a number of health care delivery businesses, a consumer engagement company, and a provider of administrative services to state and federal health care programs. For more information, visit guidewell.com.

About Crucial Care

Founded in Jacksonville, Florida, a Crucial Care facility combines high quality, compassionate care with the ability to treat high caliber cases, like an emergency room and beyond those provided by an urgent care clinic. Each location features easy access to Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physicians with onsite CT Scan, Digital X Ray and laboratory. Each facility is open 7 days a week and no appointment is needed.