New urgent care center to replace Standby Emergency Department

State earthquake safety law requires emergency services changes at Mills Health Center

The Standby Emergency Department (ER) at Mills Health Center in San Mateo must close on Dec. 1, 2012 in order to meet earthquake safety standards set by the State of California.

We are replacing the Standby ER at Mills with an Urgent Care Center in the same space, scheduled to open in fall 2013.

Questions and Answers

• Where can I go for emergency or urgent care after the Mills Standby ED closes on Dec. 1, 2012 until the new urgent care center opens?
• Why are you planning an urgent care center?
• What will the urgent care center provide?
• What is the difference between emergency care and urgent care?
• What does the designation "Standby Emergency Department" mean?
• Why not spend the money to make the building earthquake safe so you can keep the standby emergency room open?
• What is the state seismic safety law?
• What does the law affect at Mills-Peninsula?
• What will happen to the Recovery Care Inn?
• What will happen to behavioral health?

Where can I go for emergency or urgent care after the Mills Standby ED closes on Dec. 1, 2012 until the new urgent care center opens?

When the Mills Standby ER closes on Dec.1, 2012, we look forward to continuing to provide emergency and urgent care services to our entire community at the Emergency Department at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, just four miles north of Mills.

The new Medical Center opened last year, and our Emergency Department there is designed to care for twice as many patients as before.

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center is easily accessible from California Drive or El Camino Real.

Other nearby emergency rooms are:
San Mateo County Medical Center
222 West 39th Ave.
San Mateo, CA 94403

Sequoia Hospital
170 Alameda De Las Pulgas
Redwood City, CA 94062
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Why are you planning an urgent care center?

An urgent care center is a better fit with current community needs. Most patients who visit the Standby ER at Mills today require urgent care services rather than critical emergency care. Ambulances have bypassed Mills Health Center to take critically ill or injured patients to Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame since the Mills ER was downgraded to standby status in 1997.
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What will the urgent care center provide?

The new urgent care center will offer:

• Diagnostic services including lab and radiology
  
• Treatments such as IV fluids and medications, splinting and casting, wound suturing, urgent minor surgical procedures
  
• Respiratory therapy treatments
  
• Extended hours, 365 days a year
  
• Urgent care for all patients, regardless of insurance type

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What is the difference between emergency care and urgent care?

Generally, an emergency is a condition that may threaten a person's life or cause impairment if treatment is delayed. On the other hand, urgent care can treat medical problems that, while not emergencies, do require prompt care within 24 hours.

Most patients who visit the current Standby Emergency Department at Mills require urgent care services rather than critical emergency care.

Some examples of conditions that can be treated at urgent care include:

• Accidents and falls
  
• Sprains and broken bones
  
• Back problems
  
• Breathing difficulties
  
• Abdominal pain
  
• Bleeding/cuts (not bleeding a lot but requiring stitches)
  
• High fever
  
• Vomiting, diarrhea or dehydration
  
• Severe sore throat or cough
  
• Mild to moderate asthma

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What does the designation "Standby Emergency Department" mean?

Standby Emergency Departments do not care for critical emergencies. At Mills-Peninsula, critical emergency care has been provided exclusively at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame since 1997, when all acute inpatient care was consolidated at that location.

Emergency surgery and other care services required for treating critical emergencies have not been provided at Mills since the 1997 consolidation.
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Why not spend the money to make the building earthquake safe so you can keep the standby emergency room open?

It would cost between $60 million and $80 million to retrofit the one affected building at Mills. That is simply not feasible.

Equally important, most people who visit the current Standby ER require care that can be provided in a more appropriate, less costly urgent care setting.

The Mills Standby Emergency Department served about 34 patients a day in 2011, compared to about 100 at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center and up to 145 a day at San Mateo County Medical Center. From midnight to 7 a.m., on daily average, only one to three people come to the Standby ER for care.
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What is the state seismic safety law?

California Senate Bill 1953 requires that as of January 1, 2013, all acute-care California hospitals either retrofit their buildings to meet stricter standards or discontinue acute care.

The law is intended to protect the most acutely ill patients who are confined to bed and couldn't be easily evacuated in the event of an earthquake.
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What does the law affect at Mills-Peninsula?

At Mills-Peninsula, the law will affect Mills Health Center in San Mateo. The only services at Mills considered acute care and affected by the law are in one building that houses the standby emergency department and a short-stay nursing unit called the Recovery Care Inn.
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What will happen to the Recovery Care Inn?

The Recovery Care Inn (RCI) must close by Jan. 1, 2013.

The California Department of Public Health requires that patients who need longer than a 23-hour stay be cared for in a licensed acute care bed. The RCI will no longer be licensed to provide acute care under Senate Bill 1953.

When the RCI closes, Mills surgery patients who require up to 23-hour recovery will be cared for in the Mills Surgery Center Suite.

The change will mean moving some elective outpatient surgeries requiring longer recovery times to the Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame.
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What will happen to behavioral health?

Although the Behavioral Health Center offers inpatient psychiatric care, it is not affected by Senate Bill 1953 because the patients are ambulatory and physically able to exit in the event of a disaster. It will remain open in its current location. We are currently exploring options for continuing to provide inpatient chemical dependency care.
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