PHARR — South Texas Health System is officially opening its first freestanding emergency room in Pharr in hopes of addressing medical needs in the area.
The new $14.3 million facility opens Monday, Oct. 7, at 435 W. Ridge Road in Pharr, which will be the seventh freestanding ER in the upper Rio Grande Valley area.
According to Tom Castañeda, system director of marketing and public relations at STHS, the goal of the facility was to bring emergency services to an area that previously had limited access to care.
In fact, prior to the addition of the ER the closest hospital was STHS Heart in McAllen.
To accommodate the Pharr area, Castañeda said they built a facility comparable to their ER locations in Mission, Weslaco and Monte Cristo in Edinburg, which are among the larger of their ER facilities.
Castañeda added that the facility will have the capacity to address various levels of acuity including having the ability to take X-rays, CT Scans and lab work.
“Everything that you need in an ER is here,” Castañeda said.
One of the goals of the ER is to work as a first line of defense where emergency personnel can stabilize a patient and address immediate issues prior to transporting to a hospital.
“This is your first stop to making sure that you’re getting the attention that you need and then they collaborate with the hospital…so that way they’re prepped and ready to go when you get there,” Castañeda said.
The facility is currently in the process of obtaining accreditation for chest pain management.
THE ER
As one walks through the main entrance of the ER one can see the words STHS ER Pharr in silver letters sitting behind the reception desk.
To the left is a waiting room and to the right are the doors leading into the ER area.
Upon entering, there are rooms on each side of the building with the nursing station in the center of the building. “The layout design is meant for either the physician … or any of the nurses to just be able to stand up … and they have a full 360 (degree) view of all the room, all the doors and all the patients,” said Daniel Garcia, ER director for STHS Pharr, Monte Cristo and McColl.
Along each wall is a screen displaying updates on the conditions of each patient in the ER.
According to Castañeda, the 10,500-square-foot facility includes nine treatment rooms, a majority of which are private rooms and one semi-private room, which has three beds.
At the far end of the building on the west side there is a small hallway leading to the CT and X-ray rooms located right across from each other.
Castañeda said patients can also get doctors’ referrals for services like CT scans and X-rays at the new emergency room.
Back near the center of the building is Exam Room 4, which is specialized to be a trauma/ coding room that is designed to accommodate a larger number of people needed to address any situation.
The entrance to the room is larger than an average exam room to make it more easily accessible to emergency medical services, or EMS personnel.
Inside the room there is a cabinet that will include medication and necessary equipment needed for higher acuity patients that require immediate care.
“Everything critical is going to go in here (cabinet) so that we’re not having to run to the supply room or run to our medication room. Everything is ready to go,” Garcia said.
To the left of the room, which can accommodate two critical patients adequately, is the ambulance entrance to make it easier for patient transport.
Down the hall to the left is another room designed to accommodate people who are obese, which includes a Maxi Sky ceiling lift to mechanically pick up patients from bed.
Further down the hall is the human decontaminant isolation room that addresses patients who may have been exposed to toxins, this is the first decontaminant room in the STHS system’s ERs.
It’s accessible via the east side of the building near the ambulance entrance, in order to better quarantine.
Inside the room there are two shower heads on either side of the wall that create a curtain of water to rinse the contaminant.
The water that is collected in the room is then drained into a collection well that is then disposed of properly by a remediation company.
The door leading into the rest of the facility is a negative pressure area to prevent the contaminant from spreading.
Further down the hall to the left of the room are two consultation rooms and a check out room that are located near the exit into the waiting area.
The entire facility and each room include a Synexis machine, an air filtration system, that improves that sterilization in a room by reducing pathogens including bacteria, virus and mold — a need that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the first exam room, or the pediatric room, was being prepped for painting where they would be adding a safari-themed mural.
STHS will be celebrating the new facility with a ribbon cutting ceremony from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday where attendees can also receive free health screening, tour the facility and learn about other resources.
