Micro-hospital may open on S.W. Side next month.

A new hospital is expected to open next month on the Southwest Side near Port San Antonio, a fast-growing part of the city.

Baptist Health System CEO Matt Stone said his company is planning to open a 18,400-squarefoot micro-hospital on 836 Cupples Road near U.S. 90, with an eight-bed emergency department and inpatient services.

“The new emergency hospital will bring much-needed emergency care services to this part of our community and is intended to solve overcapacity problems at our high-volume emergency hospitals on Zarzamora to the south and Westover Hills to the west, as well as Baptist Medical Center in downtown,” he said.

Baptist Emergency Hospital on Zarzamora is on track to treat 40,000 patients this year. Last Thursday, the South Side hospital saw 150 patients come through its doors.

University Health System, the Bexar County-owned safety net hospital, saw a combined 280 patients per day at its pediatric, adult, women’s and trauma emergency departments on average. Baptist’s downtown hospital sees 130 patients a day on average, officials said.

The population within a 5-mile radius of the new hospital is projected to increase by nearly 8 percent over the next five years, said Jonathan Winer, an investment officer with Seavest Healthcare Properties LLC. Seavest is developing the hospital with real estate company Trammell Crow.

After the facility opens Jan. 23, Baptist will have launched seven micro-hospitals in the San Antonio area through a joint venture with Emerus Holdings Inc.

Emerus, based in the Houston area, is the nation’s first operator of micro-hospitals, with 28 facilities nationwide and more than 25 facilities under development. The first one in San Antonio was built in 2012.

Micro-hospitals have been called the health care industry’s small-batch product and a growing trend in recent years.

Industry experts say that if done right, these branded facilities placed in underserved areas operate around the clock on a much smaller scale than traditional hospitals, giving consumers better access to medical care.

Some researchers say this model could help lower mortality rates for people who live in rural parts of the country. Since 2010, 120 rural hospital have closed, according to University of North Carolina data.

“I usually refer to them as neighborhood hospitals,” said Allie Lozano, regional CEO for Emerus hospitals in San Antonio and El Paso. “We’re really trying to provide access to people in the community in which they live.”

She said patients shouldn’t have to drive 30 minutes for medical care, wait weeks to see a primary care doctor or navigate huge parking garages.

“Whether anyone wants to talk about it or admit it or not, health care has become more of a retail business,” she said. “People expect, as they should, high quality of care when they want it and where they want it.”

Lozano said a group of emergency physicians developed the concept for micro-hospitals nearly nine years ago.

“We are not putting micro-hospitals in superwealthy areas that can take in 10 patients and break even,” she said.

The company’s business model relies on partnering with larger hospital systems such as Baylor Scott and White Health, Dignity Health and Baptist, whose parent company is Dallasbased Tenet Healthcare Corp.

One of the biggest challenges for micro-hospitals is confusion between them and freestanding ERs. Lozano said Emerus has even had trouble with ambulance and emergency medical service providers not recognizing that the facilities are fully licensed and part of a larger health system.

The biggest difference is that micro-hospitals provide inpatient services in addition to emergency services.

Also, freestanding emergency centers by law cannot bill Medicare, Medicaid or Tricare unless they are affiliated with another hospital. As a result, once emergency patients are stabilized, they are often transferred to a hospital that can reimbursed for the medical care provided.