CLEVELAND -- MetroHealth and HealthSpan announced plans Wednesday to bring freestanding emergency departments to Parma and Cleveland Heights.
Under the terms of the agreement and pending regulatory approval, HealthSpan will cease operating its urgent services at a date to be determined, while maintaining all other services at 10 Severance Circle in Cleveland Heights and 12301 Snow Road in Parma.
The building space in each location will be leased to MetroHealth, which will begin new operations as freestanding emergency departments in early 2016. The emergency departments will be a part of the MetroHealth System and under the direction of MetroHealth's Department of Emergency Medicine.
Under MetroHealth's management, the emergency departments will be open to every resident of Cleveland Heights, Parma and the surrounding communities.Until MetroHealth begins its new operations, HealthSpan will continue to operate its acute care services so there is no interruption in service.
HealthSpan Physicians primary and specialty care providers will continue to see patients at the HealthSpan Parma Medical Center and HealthSpan Cleveland Heights Medical Center and its nine other medical offices located throughout Northeast Ohio.
In addition, HealthSpan Physicians announced it is increasing access to care and is now accepting patients from most insurance plans. Previously, HealthSpan Physicians were only accessible to patients with HealthSpan insurance.
The MetroHealth System's new operations will provide residents of these communities access to emergency care for more severe illnesses than were previously treated at these facilities.
The emergency departments (EDs) will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be run by MetroHealth ED staff with the same high level of education, training and certification as those who staff the emergency department on MetroHealth's main campus.
The two new emergency departments will be among 15 non-trauma center locations in Northeast Ohio that work with the Northern Ohio Trauma System(NOTS), a collaboration created to make sure severely ill and injured patients get to the right hospital, in the right manner, in the right amount of time.
