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| 1/2/2009 | OSF takes high-tech road to urgent needs at new site |
LOVES PARK - OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center's newest facility is riding the latest trend in health care. The $34.5 million OSF Center for Health - Rock Cut, near the busy intersection of Illinois 173 and Perryville Road, opens for business Tuesday. OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center, OSF Medical Group and OSF Home Care Services helped plan the center, the latest centerpiece in expansion plans featuring a full-service lab, medical imaging, primary care, a women's center, pediatrics and "prompt care". One of the newest trends being rolled out at hospitals nationwide, prompt, urgent or immediate-care programs are designed to lessen the workload on emergency rooms, where increasing numbers of patients without regular doctors are seeking treatment for non-emergency ailments - from sprained ankles to strep throat. While true emergency cases will be transferred to the emergency room at OSF's main hospital on East State Street, officials hope Rock Cut's prompt-care services will allow them to add patients to the OSF system by scheduling follow-up appointments with primary-care physicians or pediatricians. Those patients would join the thousands expected to take advantage of the new facility - more than 28,000 patient records will be moved to the 82,000 square-foot facility today, a reflection of how many patients will use Rock Cut. OSF will integrate electronic records in all of its facilities through 2010. At some point, patients will be able to access their medical records online with a secure user ID. Five new physicians will work at the Rock Cut center, and eight others will have office hours there. -Rockford Register Star |