Galichia Branches Out - Heart Hospital Opens Emergency Department

Galichia Heart Hospital will move even further from its specialty hospital roots with the opening Monday of its new emergency department. The $3.8 million project features 14 treatment beds --including eight private rooms and a six-bed holding area -- central monitoring, and access to the hospital's sophisticated technology, such as a 64-slice CT scanner.

Although Galichia -- located at 2610 N. Woodlawn -- remains 40 percent physician-owned with an emphasis on cardiology, chief executive Tom Nester said the emergency department cements the hospital's commitment to be a full-service health care provider.

"We're not the size of Wesley or Via Christi, but we're pretty much full service," he said.

"Obviously we don't do obstetrics or things like burns, but we see ourselves as a full-service hospital -- just a little bit smaller."

Galichia's initial state license in 2001 was as a specialty hospital. In recent years, it became licensed in Kansas as a general acute-care hospital, mostly because physicians and patients requested additional services and procedures, officials said.

The new emergency department is subject to federal law that requires treatment of any person who seeks help there regardless of ability to pay.

Galichia officials said they hope to see at least 30 to 35 patients a day once the emergency department gets established in the community. By comparison, Wichita's three existing emergency departments -- two of which house trauma centers -- fielded more than 163,000 patients in 2004, about 450 per day.

Galichia's emergency department isn't intended to compete with the city's existing emergency departments so much as complement them, officials said.

The hospital doesn't have the ability to admit severe trauma patients or handle inpatient pediatrics, but transfer agreements with local hospitals are being negotiated, and officials are working closely with police and EMS to establish protocol, said Mickey Whitney, chief clinical officer.

"These relationships are instrumental in having a functioning emergency department," he said. "The emergency services at other hospitals right now are just so overtaxed with patients seeking care -- we're glad to help the community with that."

The emergency department also created 40 new jobs in Wichita, mostly nurses and technicians who will staff the department 24 hours a day.

Administrators say Galichia's emergency department will have at least four nurses on duty at any given time -- a generous patient-to-nurse ratio by industry standards.

Emergency physicians, however, are being contracted through Emergency Services of Kansas, an 18-physician company that also staffs the emergency departments in Newton and Winfield.

"Our vision is pretty uniform everywhere we serve: Provide the best quality of care and treat every patient with respect," said physician Ted Cook, Galichia's emergency medical director. "And we'll take anybody who walks through that door."

~ Andi Atwater • The Wichita Eagle
316-268-6642 or aatwater@wichitaeagle.com