'Urgency Room' come to Eagan

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Fairview may soon have some competition from our neighbors to the east. Eagan may not have a hospital, but the city is next in line for a hybrid medical facility that owners say will combine the speed and pricing of an urgent care clinic with emergency room capabilities.

The Emergency Physicians Professional Association (EPPA) plans to open a 12,565-square-foot facility called at 3010 Denmark Avenue in Eagan. Construction on the clinic, called "The Urgency Room," is expected to begin within the next several weeks and could be completed as early as Oct. 2012.

On Tuesday, the Eagan City Council unanimously approved a planned development amendment to allow construction of the facility.

Eagan's Urgency Room will be the second clinic of its kind in the metro area. In 2010, Urgency Room CEO and Physician Dr. Gary Gosewisch oversaw the opening of the first Urgency Room in Woodbury—a facility that is seeing an average of 15,000 patients annually, Gosewisch said.

The rapid success of the first facility prompted the EPPA to consider expansion.

Gosewisch looked at locations across the before settling on Eagan—a decision that was prompted by the community's demographics and lack of substantial medical facilities. In addition to the Eagan location, the association plans to open a third Urgency Room in the Twin Cities area by 2013. The location of that site is still pending.

“We chose the Eagan location as this is a growing and thriving community that presently doesn’t have a hospital to provide emergency medical services,”  Gosewisch wrote in a press release.

Eagan's Urgency Room, Gosewisch said, will offer a high level of care in an expedited manner. The facility will be able to treat patients with acute or urgent medical needs, including severe abdominal pain, kidney stones, severe headaches and migraines, broken bones and pneumonia, among other medical situations.

The Urgency Room will also have many of the trappings of a hospital ER, Gosewisch said, including CAT scan capabilities, digital imaging, fluoroscopy, a diagnostic lab and a ventilator.

Although the Urgency Room will not treat patients coming in via an ambulance or medical helicopter, it will be able to arrange direct admission to an appropriate hospital, if the patient's needs require it. The facilty will have 25 full-time employees. The Eagan facility will also be equipped with 16 exam rooms and two larger procedure rooms, Gosewisch said.

Total investment in the construction and outfitting of the Urgency Room is estimated at $3.5 million, Gosewisch said.

The goal of the facility, Gosewisch said, is to be friendlier, faster and less expensive than a traditional ER. Wait times will be displayed on the Urgency Room's website and on an LCD screen in the lobby. If significant wait times do occur, patients will be allowed to leave without jeopardizing their place on the wait list.

“I think the thing that people quickly come to learn is that we can take care of really complex problems," Gosewisch said. "These are board-certified ER doctors with the equipment, staff and training to take care of very complicated medical problems."