The Guam Memorial Hospital opened the doors to their new Urgent Care Center today after a year of planning.
The new $30-thousand facility funded by tax revenues from gaming machines has a staff of three nurses, a ward clerk, and a physician ready to assist patients.
GMH Director of Special Services Belle Rada says, “It’s wonderful with what we’ve done with such a small space. Now it’s Urgent Care. We have 5 exam rooms all together and we designated one room as our specialty room where will be will do procedures like suturing and EKG.”
The much awaited clinic will relieve stress on the emergency room which handles all urgent patients in addition to the emergencies.
GMH Administrator Joseph Verga says, “Urgent Care should take care of them a lot quicker and a lot more expeditiously than the ER will. Folks will be triaged from the ER to Urgent Care or folks specifically going to the Urgent Care can go to the entrance as the ER and they’ll be directed to the ER.”
The new urgent facility is open five days a week from 3 in the afternoon to 11 in the evening. He says GMH’s ultimate vision is for a 24/7 Urgent Care.
Verga says, “We continue to hire more staff. As we get more staff and if we see how it goes, and we monitor the volumes, we may begin to look at expanding the hours and the days and the coverage.”
