A new primary care clinic that opened last week on the campus of Tucson Medical Center could result in shorter waits at the hospital’s emergency room.
As a way of offering follow-up care to patients with no primary care physician, Marana Health Center opened MHC Primary Care Dec. 1 at TMC, which is in Midtown at Grant and Craycroft roads.
Officials with both entities say the new clinic will give a “medical home” to patients after their emergency room visit. But it could also re-direct patients with non-urgent medical situations away from the emergency room.
“It’s unique — the first one in this community. There are very few models like this,” said Dr. Palmer Evans, senior vice president and chief medical officer at TMC. “One of the biggest problems in American health care is that so many underinsured patients are lost to follow-up care after they leave the hospital Emergency Department.
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“The new center will help a greater percentage of patients receive good continuity of care.”
Between 90,000 and 100,000 patients visit TMC’s emergency room per year. Nearly one in every 10 of them have no health insurance, and many more are underinsured. As a result, patients who have received emergency treatment often do not get the post-emergency follow-up care they require, TMC spokesman Michael Letson said.
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