Neighbors Health Clinic, 2001 Mall Drive, will open the second week in July and offer Texarkana a new style of emergency care, company officials said.
"We are a state-of-the-art emergency center focused on getting quick aid to a patient," said Dr. Sutuel Patel, president and CEO of Neighbors Health. "When you enter the clinic, you see we don't have a waiting room. Almost immediately, you will be seeing a doctor or nurse to begin evaluating and assessing what must be done."
Neighbors was established in Houston in 2008. Since then, they have opened 25 clinics in Texas, Colorado and Rhode Island. The Texarkana clinic is the first to attempt this new approach to emergency care. It will be open 24 hours a day and is certified by the Texas Department of Health.
"We think the citizens of Texarkana will appreciate this new way of operation, though they may not realize how unique it is," Patel said. "We are really excited to be premiering this new type of clinic here in Texarkana."
This opening is part of a larger trend, Patel says. In Texas, for instance, the legislature has worked to encourage such enterprise. They are springing up everywhere.
Patel says Neighbors Health Clinic meets the same requirements as hospital emergency rooms. "We are configured for quick access to a patient and have the same capabilities of a full hospital emergency room," he added. "Our staff is specially trained for such care."
Patel said the clinic is accredited by the Joint Commission and meets national standards of health care.
"This is something required of hospitals, but free-standing clinics don't have to do that," he said. "We ensured we qualified for that standard anyway."
Neighbors Clinic will host a community open house on June 28.
"We are really excited to be deploying this new type of clinic in Texarkana," Patel said. "We are the wave of the future of health care in the U.S."