JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – GuideWell Health, the newly formed entity focused on the direct delivery of care, has formed GuideWell Emergency Medicine Doctors, LLC, which will serve as a stand-alone medical facility serving the Orlando metropolitan area.
This unique medical facility is staffed by emergency medicine physicians and has the clinical capabilities to handle both major medical issues — such as heart attacks, strokes and internal injuries — as well as minor issues, like respiratory illnesses, ear and eye infections and sports injuries for adults and children.
The medical facility, doing business as GuideWell Emergency Doctors, will be operated by Crucial Care, a Jacksonville-based corporation that specializes in high-acuity urgent care facility management.
This marks a continuation of a business relationship with Crucial Care, as it first became a network provider for the organization in March 2011, offering access to its urgent care facility to members in Jacksonville.
This model of care brings together two innovators in the health care industry:
- Crucial Care, whose capabilities provide a cost-effective alternative to the typical hospital-based emergency care with a better patient experience.
- GuideWell Health, which aims to be a leader in transforming the delivery of health care. The company is focused on delivering superior health outcomes and experiences to patients via new, innovative care delivery models.
“By partnering with Crucial Care to operate GuideWell Emergency Medicine Doctors we are able to provide area residents with direct access to top-of-line urgent care services,” said Dr. Jonathan Gavras, president of GuideWell Health. “Collectively we are creating a repeatable business model that focuses on patient-centered quality outcomes, while providing these outcomes at an affordable cost to our patients in the Orlando community.”
The new Winter Park facility will open in the fall of 2014, and will be approximately 7,500 square feet, with 15 to 20 examination rooms. The exam rooms are designed for quick assessment and treatment of a variety of situations. Additionally, the facility is equipped with onsite ultrasound, CT scan, IV fluids, digital x-ray machines and diagnostic labs.
Andy Marino, vice president of Delivery System, noted that this arrangement is the first of many new delivery models Florida Blue and GuideWell Health will launch to meet the needs of health care consumers.
“Hospital-based emergency departments (EDs) are not a particularly cost effective site of service, yet we continue to see direct-to-consumer marketing for emergency services as well as free-standing, hospital-owned EDs being built throughout Florida,” he said.
“When evaluating the GuideWell Emergency Medicine Doctors business model, we looked at these market dynamics, the utilization patterns of our members as well as the cost of ED encounters and realized there was a more cost-effective way to deliver these services — one that also creates a better patient experience.”