The future location of a proposed free-standing emergency room on Yamato Road, Boca Raton, FL. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
The first free-standing emergency room in Boca Raton is being planned for a property along Yamato Road, adjacent to the Boca Raton Innovation Campus. The project was advanced last week by the city’s planning board in preparation for a full vote by the city council at a later date.
A free-standing emergency room provides the identical services as a traditional emergency room, only without an inpatient hospital attached. Patients may arrive by vehicle, on foot or after being transported by ambulance, and would receive the same level of care associated with a hospital-based emergency department. Florida statutes require free-standing emergency rooms to be affiliated with a licensed hospital operator; in this case, the operator would be HCA, or Hospital Corporation of America. HCA operates 191 hospitals across the country, including JFK Hospital in Atlantis and Northwest Hospital in Margate.
The future location of a proposed free-standing emergency room on Yamato Road, Boca Raton, FL. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
The future location of a proposed free-standing emergency room on Yamato Road, Boca Raton, FL. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
The East Boca Emergency Room, as it is temporarily being called, would be located at 1001 East Telecom Drive, at the corner of Yamato Road and T-Rex Avenue. It would stand in what is now a vacant, grassy area that had previously been approved for the second phase of an office complex, the first of which was built next door. The adjacent office building is utilized by a family-based development business with a minimal number of employees. The owner of that building owns the pad site on which the HCA facility would operate.
The emergency room is proposed to contain 10,860 square feet of space, all within a single-story building.
“This is the first free-standing emergency room in the city,” said Eoin Devlin, Senior City Planner. “It’s separate from the actual hospital – it’s going to be its own emergency room and we have conditions in the resolution that would prevent it from having any overnight stays or outpatient services. This is going to be an emergency room … if you need further care, they will transport you to the hospital.”
Michael Marshall, an attorney representing the property owner, said it is important to recognize that the new facility is profoundly different than an “urgent care” or walk-in clinic.
“This is much more than an urgent care – it’s an emergency room which simply isn’t located on a hospital campus,” he said. “They are equipped to handle true life-threatening emergencies.”
Free-standing emergency rooms are often built in areas where health authorities hope to reduce patient waiting times at existing ERs and take pressure off traditional hospitals. The free-standing ER may receive ambulance transports, but only one or two per day are expected, Marshall said.
The future location of a proposed free-standing emergency room on Yamato Road, Boca Raton, FL. (Photo: Boca Daily News)
A single sticking point for a few board members – as well as the BRIC complex next door – is the request by the developer to reduce the number of parking spaces on the property from 120 to 82, including a decrease from 63 spaces to 21 spaces for the specific ER section of the lot. But representatives said free-standing ERs rarely have more than a few vehicles parked outside at a given time, and the number of trips produced per day is minimal.
“If anybody is familiar with our site, our parking lot is grossly empty,” joked Larry Silver, the property owner. “That’s the nature of our business, and our business isn’t changing. We’re not selling the property, and there are 80-some parking spaces.”
The board supported a recommendation of approval to the city council, who will be tasked with voting on the matter at a future meeting. The lone dissenter in the 4-1 vote was Chairman Arnold Sevell, voicing concerns over parking.
Environment & Weather
Construction East of A1A in Boca Raton Won’t Require New Sidewalks
