A new helipad debuted Thursday at the 24-Hour Emergency Room facility on U.S. Highway 380 near the Savannah development.

The helipad is the first of its kind in that area, providing a safe location where CareFlite and other air ambulances may land.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Dr. Randy Park, center, medical director of 24-Hour Emergency Room on U.S. Highway 380, cuts the ribbon Thursday to celebrate the opening of the facility’s helipad, which will provide a safe place for air ambulances to land.

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Dr. Randy Park, medical director of the facility, said he could recall seven incidents in which people needed CareFlite to transport them to area hospitals.

“Before constructing the helipad, local roads were shut down and CareFlite helicopters had to land in a nearby grass field,” he said.

Since it opened last year, 24-Hour Emergency Room has served nearly 7,000 patients across Aubrey, Little Elm, Cross Roads, Pilot Point and Prosper. It features all the testing equipment found in a conventional hospital emergency room but is designed to be more patient-friendly, with wait times of less than 15 minutes.

Three months ago, Aubrey Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Brown used the services at the facility. At Thursday’s helipad opening, Brown said the trip had been fast and praised the facility’s friendly environment.

“I had a pretty high fever and I was planning to wait until the morning to visit my doctor, but I could not wait. … I was feeling better the next day,” Brown said, adding that he was glad the medical facility is close by, since his primary physician’s office is in Denton.

“I think this is a great location for our community, for all of Denton County,” he said.

Park worked 20 years as medical director of Denton Regional Medical Center’s emergency room. Dr. Hemant Vankawala, medical director of the new 24-Hour Emergency Room facility in McKinney, and Dr. Toby Hamilton, chief executive officer of the 24-Hour Emergency Room network, also work with the Aubrey facility.

The 20,000-square-foot building on U.S. 380 has private rooms and inpatient beds to take care of most injuries or illnesses, including allergic reactions, heart attacks, head injuries and sprains. The center’s laboratory is accredited by COLA, a national health care accreditation organization.

Park said the laboratory can provide physicians with information more quickly than in a typical hospital emergency room.

“It is all the steps, going from person to person, in a [regular] emergency room that lengthens the wait,” he said.

The medical center also has a staff radiologist who is tasked with providing reports within 30 minutes.

By adding the helipad, the facility can accommodate day and night landings, reducing the time a critical-needs patient would wait to reach another medical facility. The next-closest helipad location is in Frisco, where CareFlite operates a base.

“Ninety-seven percent of patients go home from the emergency room, and just about 2 percent of [them] need to go to another location,” Park said.

24-Hour Emergency Room facilities are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and serve communities in McKinney, east Denton County, Houston, Sugar Land and Tomball. 

KARINA RAMÍREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her e-mail address is kramirez@dentonrc.com .