If something bad happens to you at the Spec’s Liquor store, 369 Oriental Bistro, Half Price Books, or the Mattress Firm or Mattress Pro stores in the Westmont Shopping Center (known back in its Art Deco days as the Tower Community Center) at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose, you won’t have far to go for medical help. A new 24-hour emergency care center is opening up early next month between the mattress store duo and the Chinese restaurant, in a space that’s been vacant for a while.
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The recently erected steel overhang at 1007 Westheimer — which according to the rendering at top will soon be shrouded with some sort of limestone coating — will serve as the one-at-a-time-please drive-up emergency entrance for the SignatureCare Emergency Center. Open houses for the injured and non-injured alike are scheduled for July 5th and 6th.
- Previously on Swamplot: Now It’s 2 Mattress Stores Moving in Right Next To Each Other at the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose; What’s Arriving Now at the Sleepy Corner of Westheimer and Montrose; Apartments and Retail for Westheimer and Montrose Corner? Not Until Half Price Books and Spec’s Scoot; Strip Center at the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose: Sold; Big Block on the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose Goes Up for Sale
Photo: Swamplot inbox. Rendering: SignatureCare Emergency Center
Great news! This may well be the only 24/7 emergency care clinic that’s close to Eado and the Greater Eastwood neighborhoods. Believe me, if you become ill or need few stitches on a weekend, you definitely want to avoid Med Center hospital ER’s if at all possible!
We’re being overrun by overpriced urgent cares that really don’t offer many services and mattress stores. *sigh*
I have great insurance and one of these places still managed to take us to the cleaners. Screw them. From now on, I’ll go to a real hospital. Even if I have to wait a couple hours, it’s like I would have saved $500 an hour (well worth my time to wait at a real hospital).
“Sir, you need to lay down and rest. Next door is a mattress store”.
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Hmmm… I smell collusion :)
Those Emergency Care Centers are the biggest rip-off joints of all. Trust me people, unless you have cash to throw out the window, go to a hospital or just prepare to bend over.
Don’t be fooled by the names, many of those are owned by Herman Hospital, the same rip off that occurs in the emergency room is just being made more convenient.
I can only imagine what Montrose emergency cases will be like…, probably a lot of extractions will take place.
Two words: “facility fees”
They’ll rip you off
I concur with the haters – I went to one of these with great insurance, supposed to cover everything 100% after my deductible. Found out later (too late) that they charge the insurance company way more than a standard hospital, which is over your insurance company’s “allowable” limits on prices. You end up getting stuck with a several thousand dollar bill for the overages that your insurance company won’t touch.
The service was impeccable, along with the no-wait time. But for $5,000 out of pocket, I would have gladly spent 8 hours waiting in the Med Center.
I’ve been over to the St Lukes on Holcombe a few times for things like stitches and xrays. Really fast and covered as a normal hospital on my insurance every time.
We took our kid to one of the urgent care places for an xray only to not have anyone there to read it. They took it and five days later called to ask if we still wanted it read. They also tried to charge us for the reading once we declined. All kinds of sketchy.
There are way too many pop up urgent care centers. A lot of them are staffed with PAs, not real doctors. I avoid the med center at all costs – hospitals are the biggest ripoffs. No dignity and plenty of “bill padding.” There are some really good free standing ERs (real Emergency rooms not urgent care centers.) The new one on Westheimer and Weslayan (where the rice epicurean used to be) is absolutely beautiful with real ER doc and very caring nurses. They were also in network with my ins company which is rare. It’s called Texas Emergency Care Center. I went in for a really bad migraine one night. ..got an IV, some meds. It was incredible. Very fast, no BS. I belive they are originally from the suburb so they’ve been around. …