Morgan Hill’s new urgent care is scheduled to open in early
February, officials said.
Morgan Hill’s new urgent care is scheduled to open in early February, officials said.
The DePaul Urgent Care Center will be located at the DePaul Health Center medical offices building at DePaul Drive near Cochrane Road and U.S. 101.
The DePaul Health Center is formerly the site of Saint Louise Regional Hospital, which moved to Gilroy more than 10 years ago. Saint Louise is owned by Daughters of Charity Health Systems.
Shortly after the hospital moved south, an independently owned urgent care on Tennant Avenue closed, leaving Morgan Hill without urgent or emergency care at all, Planning Commissioner and Morgan Hill Community Health Foundation board member Joe Mueller said.
That’s why this urgent care means a lot to the community.
“This is just an incredibly important service to get to Morgan Hill,” Mueller said. “Right now, the only place you can go is the Saint Louise Regional emergency room, after hours and on the weekends … It’s going to give the citizenry someplace to go when their normal doctor’s office is closed. That’s the key important thing for the citizenry of Morgan Hill.”
The $900,000 project is being paid for through Daughters of Charity Health System’s operations fund, with assistance from the foundation.
There were a lot of animosity towards Catholic Health Care West, the previous owner of Saint Louise Regional Hospital, in 1999 when the parent company chose to close the Morgan Hill facility in favor of the Gilroy one, said Dennis Kennedy, who was Morgan Hill’s mayor at the time. The city has struggled to have medical facilities since, he said.
“When they closed down the facility in Morgan Hill, they thought Morgan Hill residents would go south to Gilroy. That didn’t happen. Many chose to go north instead,” he said.
Kennedy lauded Daughters of Charity for re-establishing medical care in Morgan Hill.
The once empty medical facilities at the DePaul campus will be full with the opening of the urgent care, Mueller said.
Staffed by an emergency room physician and nurse, a radiology technician and a registration clerk, the urgent care center will be open from 3 to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Appointments will not be necessary and most insurance plans will be accepted, Saint Louise spokeswoman Jasmine Nguyen said.
Patients will receive treatments for illnesses and injuries that do not require an emergency room visit, such as sprains and fractures, respiratory infections, migraines, bladder infections and also fever, cold and flu symptoms, Nguyen said. Standard blood work, X-ray examinations and urinalysis will be done on site as well.
Physician offices, an outpatient lab and radiology services also occupy the center.
Joanne Allen, CEO of Saint Louise, told South Valley Newspapers in November 2008 that the urgent care project was on her short list of projects.
