Niagara County residents in need of non-emergency medical care have a new option, as Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center opens evening care hours.
Care will be available 5-9 p.m. in the hospital's new Golisano Center for Community Health on Tenth Street. Chief Operating Officer Sheila Kee said this does not replace the hospital's emergency room, but pitches to families.
She said the evening hours should ease some of the pressure on the emergency room and make it more clearly for emergency cases. Kee said the hospital looked at who was coming in for emergency care and decided on this alternative.
"Many children are forced to go to the Emergency Department, between the hours of 5 and 7, because their moms and dads work. They can't get out of work. So, they bring their children to the Emergency Department," Kee said. "We want to be able to avoid that kind of situation by offering high quality primary care during the evening."
It is aimed at less serious health problems like colds, sprains and fevers. "If this program works as well as I'm certain it will, we hope to actually have pediatricians join us in the evening hours," Kee said. "
"So, this is a really great concept. It's going to improve the health, hopefully, of our families in the Niagara community. It's going to lower the cost of health care and make getting health care easier and more accessible," she said.
