EDITORIAL
Rockdale needs some kind of emergency room-trauma care-urgency care facility. That much is obvious.
Our town lost its facility in December when Little River-Rockdale Hospital closed and, of course, the emergency room went with it.
We’d had an ER for the previous 44 years and before that there were emergency facilities at the old Richards Clinic & Hospital. We’ve now been without any such facility for eight months and it’s sorely missed.
That’s not to say our leaders haven’t tried to help. Most notably, the county commissioners court has worked out an arrangement with PHI Air Medical to provide free air ambulance service for Milam residents to any adjacent county.
It’s free, including copays and deductibles, but you have to sign up (also free) and obtain a sticker. You can do that at Rockdale City Hall, among other locations in the county.
But we still need an ER, or something like it. A couple of weeks ago, RVFD Fire Chief Ward Roddam pleaded on social media for a hospital or emergency room, noting the volunteers had just been through a “busy and dangerous night.”
If there’s any group in the county with a finger on the pulse of that situation it is certainly our volunteer firefighters.
He was referring only to the lack of an ER, but Rockdale is going to get a new clinic and it couldn’t possibly be with a better health care system, CHI-St. Joseph’s, through its partner HealthPoint.
Its Burleson County Hospital in Caldwell operates a 24/7 trauma center, essentially an emergency room. That’s something of which to take note.
What are the chances there will eventually end up being one at the old Richards Memorial in Rockdale? Nobody knows yet, but, as hospital board officials have said, health care for our area is essentially starting over and this clinic is a great first step. Note: First step.
Dick Burns, hospital board president, said he believes St. Joseph’s will work with the community toward the goals of getting an ER and having specialists return.
And Eric Todd, clinical chief executive officer of HealthPoint, told The Reporter—while he could only give his opinion and not speak for St. Joseph’s—he felt the clinic opening might be a step toward those two goals, an ER and specialists.
He mentioned, specifically, Suite A at the hospital—the clinic will be in Suite B—as an ideal site for those services.
A lot will depend on how the new clinic is received and used. Chances are excellent it will be received very well. Todd said between 3,000 and 4,000 new patients are expected. We would imagine Rockdale area residents are ready to welcome the new facility with open arms.
And then? Why should we have any optimism since the past few decades of health care in this town have been so filled with drama and disappointment?
Because we’ve never had a health care facility like St. Joseph’s partnering with us before. All of us owe them a debt of gratitude.—M.B.
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