The private free-standing medical emergency clinics in Orange County will give anyone emergency care whether or not they have insurance. However, all patients will receive bills, according to Orange County Judge Brint Carlton.
In addition, Acadian Ambulance Service will assign more units to Orange County as all ambulances will have to travel to hospitals in Beaumont or Port Arthur.
The county is preparing for Thursday when the Baptist Hospital Orange Emergency Room closes. The full in-patient hospital closed in June 2015.
On Friday before a group of civic, business and elected officials, Carlton said Acadian Ambulance Service will take patients only to hospitals connected to an in-patient hospital. That means people in Orange County needing emergency care will go to Beaumont or Port Arthur for a hospital.
He said the ambulance service could take a patient to a free-standing emergency clinic only to stabilize the patient before taking them to an out-of-town in-patient hospital.
David Montagne, executive director of the Sabine River Authority, which is based in Orange, said traffic to Beaumont and Port Arthur is sometimes stalled and ambulances will not be able to get to a hospital quickly. “Somebody will be in an ambulance and held up in traffic and die,” he said.
The loss of the hospital emergency room means the ambulance service will be providing the first medical care for people who must be taken out of town. The trips to Beaumont and Port Arthur will take longer than trips to the Orange hospital. Carlton said the extra ambulances will be able to handle the emergency calls in Orange County while the other units are at the out-of-town hospitals.
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