Opening of new RiverBend hospital causes health care shuffle

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By Laura Rillos

EUGENE, Ore. -- PeaceHealth's new Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend is nearing completion, but the new hospital is causing a local health care shuffle. 

On August 24, the PeaceHealth Urgent Care on Willamette Street will close down and reopen at RiverBend in Springfield. 

From cases of the flu to ankle sprains, doctors and nurses at Urgent Care see about 40,000 people every year.

Many, like Eugene resident Arthur McCombs, walk to the downtown location. 

"I've used it probably two or three times in the last five years, and I don't know where I'll go if I need to," said McCombs.

The answer: Springfield.

Urget Care will open at RiverBend Pavilion Aug. 25.

Eugene residents won't have to travel that far for true emergencies.

"They can continue to come here at University District,  like they have all these years," said Tim Herrmann, the Vice President of Hospital Operations at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Sacred Heart, University District (artist conception at right) will stay open as a 104 bed hospital with a full emergency department. | Learn more about plans for Sacred Heart Medical Center, University District

The only change is the hospital's trauma designation.  Ambulances will take car accident and stabbing victims across the river.

"Oftentimes those cases come in by private vehicle," said Herrmann.  "We have the ability to stabilize those patients, but we would stabilize them and send them over to RiverBend."

When Eugene's Urgent Care closes, hospital officials expect a lot more people with non-emergencies like the flu to show up at Sacred Heart's ER.

For folks who prefer Urgent Care, there's is direct LTD bus line from downtown Eugene to RiverBend.  It's bus number 12. | GET THE BUS SCHEDULE

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