Houston Luxury and Hi-Tech Hospital

Flat-screen TVs, gourmet coffee and an Xbox are things that may be found in a fancy hotel's lobby, but what about in an emergency room's lobby?

All of those things can be found in the lobby of Emergency Heath Centre in Willowbrook.

"This is the face of emergency medicine in the future," said Chief Operating Officer Art Goetze.

The 15,000 square-foot, $10 million state-of-the art facility has a country club setting where the goal is a fast, accurate and pleasant emergency room experience.

"The goal is meeting a 90-minute turnout from the time that they arrive to the time that they are physically walking out." Founding partner Dr. Ben Oei said.

Earlier this year, Local 2 Investigates found that emergency room wait times for non-critical patients can range from one hour to 48 hours.

"They waited and they waited and they waited," one patient said.

"I don't think the system works the way it should," another patient said.

Oei has spent more than 10 years working in emergency rooms and said he realized the delay was often waiting for test results.

"So as the emergency room gets busy and the hospital is also providing a busy inpatient and outpatient schedule, it's tough sometimes to fit in our emergency room patients," Oei said.

Emergency Health Centre has its own laboratory, so results come back in less than 30 minutes. The 64-slice CT scanner produces three-dimensional images in seconds.

There are no paper charts and filling out forms at the center is paperless. Patient information is electronically accessed and can be easily updated.

"Each of our patients, when they arrive, will check in on a tablet PC. The PC is set up such that it stores their patient demographic information so they only have to fill it out once, the first time they come in," Goetze said,

Patients also have the option of checking in on their Web site.

The center is open 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. It is geared toward patients with insurance and Medicare, but will not turn away the sick and indigent, doctors said.

Five similar facilities are planned for Houston and officials plan to eventually expand statewide.
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Get Medical Treatment While Travelling

With state of the art medical facilities so close to home why travel thousands of miles to get treatment somewhere else? There are a number of reasons why traveling for medical reasons can actually be better for your health (and your wallet) than staying at home. In fact, it's becoming a more and more popular option with people from around the globe. It could be more than worth your time to figure out if medical tourism could benefit you as well.

One of the primary benefits of medical tourism is the huge potential for savings. Even when the cost of the plane ticket and lodgings for the weeks that you are there are added in, treatment in a foreign country can still be significantly cheaper than back home. In some places, the cost can be as little as a tenth of what it would cost to have the same treatment in your home country. Dental work provides the greatest overall savings, but other cosmetic and major surgeries can be had at a significant discount as well. Often, unlike hospitals in the U.S., hospitals abroad are willing to give you an estimate of the cost up front, as they know no matter what they charge it's still going to be cheaper than you would pay in your home country. This can help you to avoid many of the hidden costs that can be associated with surgery. It should also be noted that some insurers will cover overseas surgeries. Check with your insurance provider to see if you are eligible to have these costs covered so you won't be paying it all out of pocket.

Availability and lack of a wait is also a major benefit of taking your treatment abroad. Wait times for surgery can be months or up to a year in some cases and those needing treatment more quickly might actually be better served by seeking treatment elsewhere. Most surgeries whether major or cosmetic can be scheduled within a few days or weeks if done in a less overburdened foreign hospital. Whether you have a pressing need due to personal comfort and quality of life, or if you simply want to get it taken care of more quickly, medical tourism can be a great way to more easily and quickly get the attention you need.

Though it might come as a surprise to some, one benefit to traveling for medical reasons is that you may actually be able to get better and more personal care at a foreign hospital than you can get at home. Many hospitals specialize in medical tourism, and in order to draw in customers they provide exceptional quality and service. Depending on your destination you have the opportunity to get treatment from some of the best doctors in their field, many of which will have been trained at prestigious institutions abroad. Equipment and facilities are actually very comparable to those in the U.S., and patients will often find that they can afford a more luxurious hospital stay abroad than they could at home.

Medical tourism isn't just about getting more reasonably priced medical care; it's also a great way to spend your recovery in a relaxing and beautiful environment, free from the ringing phone and responsibilities that could plague your recovery at home. You will have the opportunity to spend your recuperation time under an umbrella on the beach or shopping in luxury boutiques. The savings on the surgery can also allow you to bring along friends or family members and still pay less than you would have at home. Bringing along familiar faces can also help make getting treatment in a foreign country less intimidating. Many package deals are also available which can help you easily bundle your treatment in with sightseeing, massages, and spa treatments.

Medical tourism isn't a perfect solution to combating rising medical costs but for many it can be a much more rewarding experience than dealing with medical facilities at home. Not to mention it has the added benefit of a vacation afterwards. Depending on your situation the benefits of seeking treatment away from your home country can actually outweigh the risks, and medical tourism can be an incredibly rewarding way to get your medical care. From MedicalTourismGuide.org
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