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A Day in the Life: Danny Carey - RN

My name is Danny Carey and I am an emergency room RN at Golden Triangle Emergency Center (GTEC) in Port Arthur, TX. I have been with GTEC since we opened our doors in 2014.

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Member Highlight: Greg Hadden

The practice of medicine has changed a lot in the 15 years.  The emergency medical care that we provide our patients has improved significantly.  However, this is true in spite of the fact that forces outside emergency physicians’ control have needlessly increased the emotional, mental, physical, and time burden on us as individual physicians. Physicians have less control over our hospital-based practice environment than ever before.

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Sponsor Highlight: Texas Systems Group (TXSG)

Sponsor Highlight: Texas Systems Group (TXSG)

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A Day in the Life: Angela Webb - RN

I have been with Golden Triangle since its inception in July of 2014 for the Port Arthur location, and April of 2015 for my current Orange location.

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Freestanding Centers Could Boost Healthcare Access in Rural Texas

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Positive Economic Impact of Freestanding Emergency Centers

As chief medical officer of Elite Care, a freestanding emergency center with facilities in San Antonio and across the state, I would like to address some of the assertions made about emergency care in a recent Viewpoints column, "Freestanding emergency rooms threaten health of Texas business," by a representative of the Texas Association of Business.

All emergency rooms see low acuity patients - lots of them. This is because patients are not doctors, so the determination of whether symptoms are emergent or non-emergent can only be made after seeing a doctor. For this reason, the prudent layperson standard was created.

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Freestanding Emergency Rooms Get Bum Rap

Freestanding emergency rooms are taking it on the chin in the media as the low hanging fruit that some businesses and consumers want to blame for their out-of-pocket health care expenses, but the facts and objective, generally accepted business principles don’t tell that story. What is the true story?

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Sponsor Highlight: Mortara Instrument

Founded in 1982 by David W. Mortara, PhD, Mortara Instrument was born with a guiding philosophy: design to a need, keep it simple, and make it economically accessible. Building on this philosophy, Mortara has created the Surveyor™ patient monitoring product line which is born of a 30-year cardiology heritage and promotes efficiency and reliability in surgical environments, emergency departments, recovery environments, or anywhere critical patient monitoring is needed. Mortara has been recognized as a leading designer, developer, and manufacturer of diagnostic cardiology and patient monitoring technologies. All of its products are “Built with Pride” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It’s really quite simple when it comes to patient monitors. It’s all about your patient. Our innovative new Surveyor patient monitors set the bar high by keeping it simple and smart. At the core of this platform is one of the most advanced and widely used ECG algorithms in the world - Mortara’s renowned VERITAS™ suite of algorithms. Recognized for excellence, VERITAS is the choice of caregivers across the globe. Our Surveyor patient monitoring solution includes a variety of offerings to help you keep a watchful eye on your patients.

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A Day in the Life: Dr. Michael Hart

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Dr. Hart grew up in Abilene, TX and ran a rural health clinic in Stamford, TX for nearly 20 years. He graduated from the University of Texas San Antonio after studying Biology at Abilene Christian University. There he was voted Most Compassionate Intern/Resident three years in a row, and it still shows in patient reviews still today. He moved to Dallas shortly after the passing of his mother for a fresh start. Dr. Hart loves his doggies, has a twin sister and amazing extended family, and can win any contest regarding musicals!

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A Day in the Life: Dr. Luke Bertorelli

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Dr. Bertorelli is originally from New Jersey. He now lives in Fort Worth with his wife Alley and three children Lulu (12), Tommy (8), and Charlie (4). In his free time he enjoys fishing, cooking, traveling, and playing guitar. Dr. Bertorellu is board certified (ACOEP) in emergency medicine.

Member Highlight: Dr. Jon Steadman

Dr. Steadman is a board-certified, emergency-medicine-trained physician. He has worked in a number of different emergency room settings within the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as in Oklahoma and Mississippi.

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Sponsor Highlight: Quidel

Quidel began 35 years ago with a primary goal of providing improved diagnostic tools to our customers that assist in delivering more effective patient care. We believe as healthcare continues to evolve that the need for accurate, fast, simple, scalable and cost-effective diagnostic solutions that can be used at the point-of-care will continue to evolve as well. Our current platforms and those we look to develop in the future are built around helping meet the challenges of our current and future healthcare landscape.

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TAFEC Addresses Top 5 Myths About Freestanding ERs

AUSTIN, Texas – Oct. 13, 2016 – The rapid growth of freestanding emergency centers (FECs) in states like Texas is helping transform emergency care in the U.S., providing a delivery model focused on convenience, speed, and getting patients quality time with physicians. Despite this, misconceptions of these facilities and the services they provide persist.

In 2009, Texas became the first state to license independent FECs, and today there are more than 200 independent FECs and more than 100 hospital-affiliated FECs statewide. FECs are conveniently located in patient neighborhoods, which improves access to care and saves critical travel time that could mean life or death. In most cases, patients are seen by a physician within minutes of walking into the facility and are treated right away.

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Sponsor Highlight: T System

T-System offers a suite solutions for the FSED market that are unique in the industry. T Sheets® and T-System’s EV™ (electronic version) provide efficient, complaint-driven bedside documentation that helps clinicians spend more time with patients and accurately reflect care and medical decision making for optimized reimbursement. FSEC Foundation™ is the only purpose-built integrated platform that provides FSECs with a full-suite of technology tools to drive clinical, operational and financial outcomes.

EV™ is an easy, efficient and effective ED information system (EDIS) and includes physician and nurse documentation, CPOE, patient tracking, clinical decision support, e-prescribing, reporting and more. Over 400 emergency departments and freestanding emergency centers have chosen EV to document patient care. T-System’s clinical experts maintain the system with the most up to date regulatory and clinical requirements.

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XtreMed in Action

XtreMed has provided concierge radiology services since the inception of the Freestanding Emergency Center (FEC) concept in 2008. Whatever is needed for your radiology suite – we make it headache-free for you.

As NAFEC’s inaugural Champion Sponsor, XtreMed successfully incorporates several aspects of your FEC project including working with the architects and physicists to design your facility and protect your staff and patients with proper shielding needs, managing your general construction company to ensure your radiology department meets your state’s regulations and your expectations.

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Emergency Care is Unlike Other Forms of Healthcare

The media and insurance providers often draw comparisons between freestanding emergency centers and urgent care facilities, despite their drastically different levels of services. There are a number of aspects that differentiate emergency care from other forms of medical care. TAFEC is here to highlight what makes freestanding emergency room visits unique, and how billing practices of freestanding emergency centers might differ from primary care physicians or urgent care centers.

EMERGENCY CARE IS UNEXPECTED
Emergency care visits are unplanned. Patients don’t schedule ahead or shop out where they are going to receive emergency care beforehand like they do for primary care physicians and urgent care facilities. Patients visit freestanding emergency centers because a medical emergency has occurred. This is why freestanding emergency centers must be ready for any type of injury or illness presented at their facility. Read our Cost of Readiness blog.

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TAFEC's Response to Associated Press

A recent study, conducted by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, has generated a lot of media attention toward the freestanding emergency center (FEC) industry, including a recent Associated Press article. TAFEC believes there is a need for additional information so readers understand the complicated political and regulatory landscape FECs must navigate with regard to these findings, and has addressed the following areas to provide further context:

1. Access to Emergency Care for All
2. National Regulation Governing FECs
3. Relieving Pressure on Hospitals
4. Comparing FECs to Urgent Cares
5. FEC Patient Satisfaction
6. Retaining Emergency Physicians




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Sponsor Highlight: COBAIT

FEC owners and doctors are in the business of patient care with technology playing a leading role in providing comprehensive patient care and overall business management. In order to stay ahead of the curve, you need a competent and trusted technology partner to manage and maintain your infrastructure and systems 24/7. COBAIT has the expertise and resources to be that partner and unlike any other IT and Technology vendor, we bring the experience and best practices of large fortune 500 companies to the FEC market including CIO level services.

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Family ER + Urgent Care acquires Texas Emergency Care Centers (TECC) and ER Centers of America (ERCA)

IRVING, TX (August 3, 2016) – Family ER + Urgent Care announced today that it has completed its acquisition, in two separate transactions, of Texas Emergency Care Centers (TECC) and ER Centers of America (ERCA). Dedicated to providing high quality, fairly priced emergency and urgent care services, the combined company will have five (5) facilities in the Dallas, Houston and Lubbock metropolitan areas offering emergency room services, and one facility in the Dallas metropolitan area offering both emergency room and urgent care services. Each of the Emergency Room facilities are licensed by the State of Texas, Joint Commission and Commission of Office Laboratory Accreditation (COLA) accredited and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certified.

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Member Highlight: Dr. Matt Young

From an early age I was interested in the medical profession, thought it was also in my blood. My father was a General Surgeon, and my mother assisted with his practice. Of the 10 children in my family, two of us are ER Physicians, five are Orthopedic Surgeons, one is a nurse, one is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, and one is soon to be a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership. Growing up, my siblings and I were exposed to the practice of medicine through volunteering in the community and working in local hospitals. I was always attracted to assisting others with acute needs and was always willing to help. Several years ago my wife and I explored the opportunity of opening a freestanding emergency center (FEC). However, the timing and circumstances weren’t right. A random Facebook message in December of 2014 turned into a fantastic opportunity for my wife and I to partner with some wonderful, experienced physicians. We opened our FEC 11 short months later.

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