By Dave Schafer

POP!

That was the sound Mona Ross’ wrist made when she tripped over her daughter’s bed frame and extended her left hand to break her fall.

Ross knew right away the wrist was broken, and her thumb was bent at an odd angle.

The pain was … well, she can’t put that into words. It hurt. Bad.

Because it was in the evening and her primary care physician’s office was closed, an emergency room was her only option, Ross believed.

“The thought of having to sit in that emergency room was unbearable,” she said. “I just couldn’t handle it right then. I just decided to take the pain until I could see my PCP the next day.”

Then she remembered reading in a newsletter about urgent-care facilities that act as speedy treatment centers for injuries that aren’t life-threatening.

She called Kelsey-Seybold, her network provider, and was told the nearest facility was St. Luke’s Minor Emergency on San Felipe. It wasn’t close to her home, but if it shaved time off waiting in the emergency room, she’d take it, Ross said.

Her daughter, Jordan, drove her to the facility. Jordan had a date that night, but she was resigned to missing it.

Jordan didn’t miss her date. Ross was back in the car within an hour, her arm splinted, strapped to her side and pain free.

She’d waited just 10 minutes before being examined, X-rayed, and seen by the doctor, who told her she’d broken two bones and dislocated her thumb.

“The difference with the urgent-care center was the wait time,” she said. “I had hardly any. The staff was cordial, accommodating and compassionate.”

Ross is one of too-few city employees who are taking advantage of the seven urgent-care centers available to city employees, said Caryn Ayers, principal account executive with BlueCross BlueShield of Texas. That’s true of not only city employees but all BlueCross members.

“More go to the emergency room than is necessary,” Ayers said. “And unfortunately, there are people who use an emergency room in place of a primary care physician.”

While 106 city employees with the HMO Blue Texas HMO visited an urgent care facility from Nov. 1, 2004, through Oct. 31, 2005, 10,834 HMO and PPO members visited the ER, according to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas.

Those unnecessary trips to the emergency room cost the employee more money. If not admitted to the hospital from an ER, a HMO Blue HMO member will pay $150; at an urgent care center, the cost is $40 for the same services. PPO members will pay $60.

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Mona Ross, Aviation, discovered the time-saving benefits of using an urgent-care facility after she broke her left wrist. Ross was in and out of the facility within an hour. Photo by Roger Smith.