Dan's Papers - April 18, 2008

If you fall off your bike and break an arm this summer, you won't have to call 911 and travel to the emergency room at Southampton Hospital, thanks to a new urgent care facility coming to East Hampton on June 15.

In fact, at the new center, you can be treated, x-rayed and given a digital copy of your x-rays on a disk to give to your own doctor when he or she is available - one of the many services that will be available at this new, and long over due, facility.

The East Hampton Urgent Medical Care Center will open on Pantigo Road (also known as the Montauk Highway), east of Skimhampton Road in the building that used to house the Sports Rehab Network (across the street from Cook, Hall & Hyde insurance company). The center will be open seven days a week, though hours have yet to be determined.

The idea for the urgent care center came about as a result of a major health needs assessment study by the healthcare foundation ten years ago. "What we found is that when people need a doctor, they need one right away," said Henry Murray, chairman of the board of trustees for the health foundation.

"The new center represents a real partnership between Southampton Hospital and the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation, both non-for-profit organizations," said Fredric Weinbaum, M.D., chief medical officer and chief operating officer of the hospital. The $1 million facility is being funded through private donations to the healthcare foundation.

"Private philanthropic money will come from generous donors in the East Hampton community," said Murray. A third partner in the enterprise is 24/7 Emergency Care, P.C., a group of six doctors that serves Southampton Hospital's emergency department. Those doctors will also take turns at the new urgent care center, which will be electronically connected with the healthcare foundation and the hospital so that patient records are instantly available.

The new center will be staffed with certified emergency room doctors who have an additional three years training in the specialty. In addition to six patient rooms (including two larger procedure rooms) and two waiting rooms, it will be fully equipped with the latest digital x-ray machines and a laboratory that can analyze most blood tests. Physicians on staff can electronically send results and x-rays to the hospital for instant interpretation.

"This center is for urgent care, which means that you need a doctor right away and can't wait for your own doctor, who may be unavailable," said Murray. It will be especially good news for summer residents and vacationers, whose personal doctors are miles away.

At first, one emergency physician, one nurse and one aide will be available at the center, though another doctor and possibly a physician's assistant will be added as necessary, especially as the summer population swells.

"We'll see a lot of lacerations, ear aches, sprains, strains and broken bones, along with asthma and allergy sufferers," said the new head of the center, Darren Wiggins, M.D., who has also served (and will continue to) as chairman of the emergency center at Southampton Hospital for the past ten years.

The center will also treat tick bites and Lyme disease, colds, viruses and infections, among many other conditions. It is not the place to go, however, for extreme conditions such as strokes or heart attacks, Wiggins said, or in place of regular visits to primary care doctors who provide ongoing treatment.

"If it's something you would call 911 for, it's probably best if you go to the hospital," he said. If people do come in with extreme illnesses, he added, they will be stabilized at the center and sent by ambulance to the hospital. Ambulances will not serve the center because they can only go to state-approved receiving centers, such as hospitals.

Though the former sports therapy building has been gutted to make way for the renovations, the exterior will remain the same, officials said. The interior is being designed for maximum flexibility, so that areas can be changed as the center grows and its needs become clearer.

Sheila Rogers, the director of programs and administration at the healthcare foundation, said residents of East Hampton would receive a letter and brochure about the new center before it opens.