Free-standing emergency rooms are popping up across eastern Iowa – what does this mean for patients?

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – With both Mercy Medical Center and Unity Point Health – St. Luke’s in downtown Cedar Rapids, it can be a struggle for anyone outside the metro area to access emergency medical care.

But both hospitals are looking to change this.

”If you live in Marion, sometimes it’s 25 minutes to get downtown, so we’re bringing in emergency care closer to their homes.” said Mercy Medical Center Director Dr. Matthew Aucutt.

In August of 2020, Mercy Cedar Rapids opened Iowa’s first free-standing emergency room in Hiawatha.

Now, they’re building another one in Marion.

One physician says these centers help meet a growing demand at their main campuses.

“In our population, people are getting sicker and sicker. The baby boomer generation is getting older and have more emergent medical problems. And so, we’re going to see increased ER volumes across the country over time.” said Aucutt.

Both locations will function identically to an ER, but they can’t admit anyone.

But the cost of transporting patients to the hospital for admission is covered by the hospital.

Doctor Aucutt says he hopes this will be the go-to resource for people who need more than urgent care and don’t want to travel downtown.

“With a sicker population, urgent care just doesn’t meet the needs of those patients. And urgent cares aren’t open 24/7.. We can take care of them and provide the care that they need so they don’t need to get admitted.” he explained.

Though, a study out of Texas, which has 266 free-standing emergency rooms, shows that patients struggle to determine whether urgent care or free-standing E-Rs would meet their needs better.

This can often lead to patients paying more for emergency care when they could have gotten the same care for cheaper at an urgent care.

But Aucutt says most patients know where to go.

“Patients have learned over time in our community what level of service they can get at urgent care versus the emergency departments, and that’s up to them.” he said.

But with only 2 open free-standing ERs (and two more on the way), it’s unclear whether patients will actually understand which centers offer which services… and if their wallets will suffer because of it.

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