For months now, County Judge Steve Young has been doing all he can think to do to get urgent care back into Milam County since it lost its two hospitals in 2018.
But he got word earlier this month that put an end to funds he had hoped to get to go toward renovating a complex that used to house the hospital in Cameron.
“The urgent care center is on hold for now and will be unless we get more CARES Act funding that can be used for this purpose. This is really the only realistic source of funding. The renovation cost is in the $900,000 range and we simply don’t have the money for this,” Young said in an interview with The Reporter.
“I think we need afterhours care in the county. We have great care during the day with the fine clinics we have, but it would be great to have in person after hours care,” Young said. “However, the issue is money. None of the providers want to provide urgent care, because they don’t think it is profitable. I asked all of them for urgent care and they all said no. I even offered some of our CARES Act money as a subsidy, but again no.
“The question is whether enough people will use the service. We are close to Scott & White in Temple and Taylor and St. Joe/Scott & White in Bryan. The basic annual cost of an emergency room is about four million (dollars) and that is out of the question,” he said.
“What we are talking about is a basic clinic staying open until 10 p.m. or so on weekdays and on Saturday. There is simply no way to know unless we try it,” he said.
That is what he is working to use a part of the complex of three buildings that were once Little River Healthcare Cameron Hospital.
“We acquired the building on July 27, after almost 18 months of deliberation. We traded eight buildings and two vacant lots in downtown Cameron for the 8.5- acre complex. The complex contains three buildings and over 50,000 square feet of usable space,” Young said.
It is Young’s desire to see that complex become a medical center for the area and despite the latest setback he says he will stay in touch with those who offer grants.
“I stay in contact with TDEM almost daily with respect to this and other issues,” he said.
Also there is still the Economic Development Administration grant that he is waiting to hear about.
“The EDA grant is alive and well. We got tentative approval back in September 2020, but final approval comes from Washington. We are waiting on final approval and I think we will be approved, but we don’t have the final say so yet. The grant is over 4.7 million and almost all of this will be used to renovate the former hospital building for county administrative purposes,” he said. “This is a badly-needed upgrade for the county and it will be a money saver. For example, our total monthly electrical bill is about $25,000 per month, in part because of the poor insulation in the old buildings. We are going to install solar panels at the new complex and our annual bill for the complex will be around $20,000. So a big savings.” If the grant doesn’t come
through, the county will have to borrow the money to renovate the hospital buildings, he said.
“We would make a seven-year note and the first five annual payments would be about $200,000 per year and then we would have two large balloon notes of about 1 million. However, by that time the jail would be paid off and we would have about $665,000 extra to use for this purpose,” Young said.
The county has already done some work to the buildings, he noted.
“So far we have done asbestos abatement, which cost us about $90,000,” Young said. We did a little exterior work as well, which is in the $20,000 range. Most of this will be paid for with TDEM money. The good news here is this had to be done no matter what. So no matter what we do with the building, the asbestos is out.”
There has been good news healthwise, he said, mentioning Telemed, the diagnostic center located in the Sheriff’s Department in Cameron.
“Telemed came through a grant from Blue Cross & Blue Shield in the amount of $10,000,000. This was given to Texas A&M Health Science Center to use to help rural Texas with health care. The station was actually designed by On-Med and it is simply great. It will be used in addition to the urgent care. It will soon be open 24-7 and I see it being used for just about everything as we go forward.”
Also an urgent care unit will not disrupt the emergency care air and land ambulances that the county now subsidizes the use of.
“The urgent care would not affect our helicopter emergency service. We will continue to fund this service, no matter what. However, our ambulances would not transport to the urgent care as it is not an emergency room, which is the only place the ambulance can transport to. Our subsidy for the helicopter service is about $37,000 per year and that will continue,” he said.
“What we are talking about is a basic clinic staying open until 10 p.m. or so on weekdays and on Saturday.
Steve Young
Milam County Judge
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