To prepare for the opening of Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate in Austin, Texas Children’s has opened a Welcome Center adjacent to the future urgent care site on the south side of Austin. The Welcome Center is being used for human resources and philanthropy. It also will serve as a means to create brand awareness for Texas Children’s in the Austin community.
The new office, located at 4477 South Lamar Blvd., opened January 8 and is primarily being used to recruit future employees and on-board staff. The space will not be used for clinical services.
“We are very excited to have this new office in Austin,” said Texas Children’s Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown. “It marks our entrance into the fastest growing city in America with a pediatric population of almost a half a million.”
Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate is scheduled to open in March and will be modeled after Texas Children’s other urgent care facilities, all of which are located in the Greater Houston area and offer high-quality, efficient and affordable pediatric care at a convenient location.
Open Monday through Friday, 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m., the clinic will be staffed by board certified pediatricians who diagnose and treat a wide variety of ailments, illnesses and conditions, including: asthma, strep throat, fever, minor burns, influenza, ear infections, allergic reactions and more. Procedures to be provided include: antibiotic injections, breathing treatments, fracture care and splinting, IV (intravenous) fluids, lab services, laceration repair and X-rays onsite.
“Oftentimes, families turn to an emergency center after hours, on weekends or perhaps even during the day, when a significant event occurs with their child,” said Kay Tittle, president of Texas Children’s Urgent Care. “Though the emergency center is the right place for some incidents or ailments, the majority of the time minor illnesses can and should be treated at a pediatric urgent care facility.”
Texas Children’s opened its first urgent care facility in 2014 and has since seen tremendous success in getting pediatric patients where they need to be to receive the proper treatment for their illness or injury, decreasing the number of low-acuity cases at Texas Children’s emergency rooms.
In addition to opening Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate, Texas Children’s plans to open additional pediatric urgent care clinics, primary care pediatric practices, pediatric specialty care locations and maternal-fetal medicine practices across Austin over the next five years.
“Making sure women and children have access to exceptional health care close to home is why we have hospitals in Katy and The Woodlands and nearly 80 Texas Children’s primary care and urgent care practices, specialty care centers, maternal-fetal medicine clinics and other health care locations throughout Greater Houston,” Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace said. “And that is why we are bringing Texas Children’s to Austin, Texas.”
Click here to read Wallace’s blog post about why Texas Children’s is moving into Austin.