Non-profit GuideWell Health opening new ER across from Kissimmee hospital

Guidewell Emergency Doctors has broken ground on a $4.6 million stand-alone emergency clinic across from AdventHealth Kissimmee.

GuideWell has begun hiring for the Kissimmee location, which opens in October. The 7,520-square-foot clinic at 2465 N Orange Blossom Trail will include 19 exam rooms and on-site diagnostic equipment to handle CT scans, X-rays, ultrasounds and lab work.

The growing medical practice, operated by Crucial Care, has three Central Florida locations in Winter Park, Ocoee and Orlando, in addition to three locations in the Tampa Bay region with three more opening in the area this year. The Kissimmee location will operate seven days a week and will be staffed with up to 25 bilingual health professionals.

“GuideWell Emergency Doctors is a unique model unlike anything else in traditional urgent care,” said Dr. Nicholas Dodaro, chief medical officer of Crucial Care. “Our team, led by board-certified emergency medicine doctors, is delivering a better emergency care experience with half the wait time of a traditional ER.”

The company positions itself as an affordable alternative to traditional hospital emergency rooms. Patients are told upfront the cost of treatment and receive a single, consolidated bill. The facility is equipped to treat minor ailments, such as the flu or ear infection, to more serious health emergencies, ranging from congestive heart failure to bone fractures.

“Every year, an estimated $30 billion or more is spent on avoidable emergency room visits,” said Dr. Elana Schrader, GuideWell’s Senior Vice President, Health Care Services and President of GuideWell Health. “On average, treatment at GuideWell Emergency Doctors costs patients one-third of the cost of an ER visit and results in 30% fewer hospital admissions than those treated at a hospital emergency room for major medical issues.”

GuideWell Emergency Doctors can, when extended care and treatment is needed, help patients get admitted directly to a hospital, bypassing the ER. They can also coordinate same-or next-day referrals to specialists, while working with the patient’s primary care doctor, and ensure patients stay within their insurance plan’s network to keep out-of-pocket costs down.

The company opened its 30,000-square-foot GuideWell Innovation Center in Lake Nona’s Medical City. The Center will include research labs from two major universities as well as the anchor tenant of the GuideWell Innovation CoRE (Collaborative Resource Ecosystem).

GuideWell is the latest health care company to choose Kissimmee for a new facility. AdventHealth opened a freestanding emergency room at its Partin Settlement Health Park last year. In March, Encompass Health confirmed its plans for an 80-bed rehabilitation hospital at the southwest corner of Calypso Cay Way and S.R. 535 (Vineland Road), immediately north of the Embassy Suites hotel, and across from Lennar’s Storey Lake Resort.

AdventHealth is expected to wrap up construction later this year on the latest expansion to the Kissimmee hospital on Orange Blossom Trail. The $84 million project will add 80 more private rooms, bringing the total number of acute care beds at the downtown Kissimmee campus to 240, and add more surgical suites.

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