Bayhealth opens new Sussex hybrid facility

Bayhealth’s Emergency and Urgent Care Center, Total Care – Milton opens for business in mid July. | PHOTO COURTESY OF BAYHEALTH

MILTON — Bayhealth has opened its latest facility in Sussex County, a hybrid emergency and primary care center at the intersection of Lewes-Georgetown Highway and Hudson Road earlier this month.

Bayhealth’s Emergency and Urgent Care Center, Total Care – Milton is a 48,500 square-foot facility that combines walk-in emergency services as well as imaging and lab services and office space. With 11 exam rooms, a trauma room and two additional beds, the facility is primed to serve the rapidly growing Sussex County. The emergency and urgent care services opened on July 11, and other aspects started accepting patients that week.

“Bayhealth Total Care represents a significant milestone in our ongoing effort to improve access to quality healthcare in Delaware,” Bayhealth President and CEO Terry Murphy said in a statement. “We’re committed to making your healthcare experience faster and easier, without asking you to choose between quality and convenience.”

In recent years, health care organizations have been zeroing in on southern Delaware due to the growing population, particularly in people 65 years old or older.

The area along Route 9 is targeted as one of the fastest growing populations in the state, rising 21% between 2010 and 2019m according to a study done by the marketing firm Claritas Company. The 65 and older population is particularly booming, growing nearly 60% in the same span.

This issue has been on both Bayhealth and Beebe Healthcare’s minds as early as 2019, as both filed plans to built an emergency department in the western area of the county. Both plans were scuttled after a review committee recommended denial to both proposals in part due to the cost consumers would face from emergency services.

The average visit to an ER is estimated at $1,484 compared to $185 for a walk-in clinic, according to data shared with the Delaware’s Health Resources Board in June 2020.

For the couple of years, Bayhealth has been growing its services from beyond its footprint in Dover, starting first with building a new Sussex Campus along Route 1 in Milford. That facility has brought in new partnerships with Nemours and with PAM Rehabilitation Services. It also is looking at other locations, and has opened a primary care office in Middletown.

Bayhealth officials also hope that the new Milton facility will draw more doctors to the state. The health care system has opened graduate medical programs, currently training 73 resident physicians. The goal is that these doctors will stay in the First State once they complete their residencies. 

“We’ve been recruiting the best talent in medicine from across the country and bringing them to Delaware,” Bayhealth Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President Gary Siegelman said. “Having physician residency programs not only strengthens the caliber of our health system but it furthers the ways we’re able to serve our community in our hospitals and practices.

The residency program equates to roughly 15,000 patients annually receiving care, he added.