Emergency Room & Urgent Care Clinic Coming To DFW Airport
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DFW AIRPORT (CBS11) - A North Texas company is getting ready to open an emergency room and an urgent care clinic at DFW Airport.
"We're going to be the first emergency room on airport property in the United States," said Code 3 CEO Carrie de Moor, who is also an emergency physician.
While traveling, she said she noticed the need for airport clinics, which could relieve earaches, replace lost medication or treat passengers who develop medical issues in-flight.
DFW Airport seemed the ideal place to start, she said.
De Moor said ambulances annually take about 3,500 patients from airport property to a hospital.
"(It is) about the size of Manhattan, has 60,000 employees on property every single day. That alone is a small city. On top of that you have 60 million travelers coming through every year," said de Moor.
She said the airport board agreed with the idea and even asked her to go one step further.
"If we could possibly do one inside the terminal with a pharmacy because it was something passengers had repeatedly told the airport they needed," she said.
Along with the ER, which will be built near the airport's administration office, came approval for the clinic in Terminal D.
It creates unique challenges.
"For example, needles and things, we'll have to get approved before we can get them past a security checkpoint," said de Moor.
Employees will need TSA clearance and the pharmacy won't carry narcotics.
If travelers are stuck at the airport overnight due to bad weather, the clinic may operate extended hours.
De Moor said she's also talking to the airport about disaster management.
"What would it be like having an emergency physician there on ground zero if something were to occur?" she said.
The clinic is expected to open in August. The emergency room will follow around the end of the year.
Code 3 also has plans to open an urgent care clinic at McCarren Airport in Las Vegas.
A spokesperson said it is in discussions with other airports as well, but would not say which ones.
