Bayhealth is planning a new facility in Sussex County offering emergency care. This comes after plans for an emergency care facility at the same site were scuttled last year.
Bayhealth withdrew its application to build a freestanding emergency facility last year after the Delaware Health Resources Board expressed concerns it would add unnecessarily to the cost of care in Delaware.
Now the health system has been approved to build an outpatient center at the original planned site near Milton that will offer emergency care along with a list of other services.
Bayhealth President and CEO Terry Murphy says an urgent care option at the facility will limit the use of the costlier emergency care center.
“The people that come to that emergency department, if they’re deemed to have a non-emergent condition as screened by medical personnel, they will be referred to an urgent care site and will be charged for urgent care services as opposed to emergency department charges,” said Murphy.
Beebe Healthcare had its application to build a freestanding emergency department denied by the state just as Bayhealth's was withdrawn. In a statement Beebe President and Ceo Dr. David Tam said, "Beebe remains committed to continually reviewing opportunities to better serve our growing community.”
The new Bayhealth facility will also offer specialty care, diagnostic services and will add primary care practices to a region with a dearth of primary care.
“If you drop where our 18-acre site is and draw a one or two-mile radius from that site, there’s very few if any practitioners for that growing community, and it’s growing very rapidly,” said Murphy.
Murphy adds that the hope is that as Bayhealth launches its residency program next year some of the graduating physicians may want to fill new primary care positions in the area.
Bayhealth is building it on an 18-acre site off Route 9 just East of Harbeson. The 40,000 square foot building will cost the health system about $35 million and is expected to be operational within the next two years.
Murphy says the move will create between 50 and 75 new jobs.
