The health system's innovative model around ER and urgent care settings ensures the right care, in the right location, at prices patients can afford.
One of the most persistent critiques of American hospital systems is that they route every walk-in patient into the most expensive care setting available. Show up at a hospital with a mild injury, get billed for a full emergency room visit. The building decides the bill.
Parkview Health decided to do the opposite.
In November 2023, Parkview opened the region's first combined emergency room and urgent care facility at Parkview Southwest in Fort Wayne. It looks like an emergency room. It's staffed like an emergency room. Board-certified emergency medicine physicians are there 24/7. But it works differently. When a patient walks in, a provider evaluates their condition first. If it can be safely managed at urgent care level, the patient is treated at urgent care level — and billed at urgent care rates, which are far lower than emergency care.
More than two years in, the model has become one of Parkview's clearest answers to the healthcare affordability question. In April 2026, the health system broke ground on a second combined facility in Marion, expected to open in fall 2027.
The timing has been important. According to Kauffman Hall, Indiana hospitals are experiencing a surge in emergency department demand, with ED visits increasing 16.8% year-over-year compared to 1.4% nationally. As more patients seek care through emergency departments, Parkview's hybrid model helps ensure patients receive the right level of care while avoiding unnecessary costs whenever clinically appropriate.
How the model works
Dr. Thomas Gutwein, physician executive for the Emergency Department and Pre-hospital Service Line at Parkview Health, has explained the flow through a running example.
“You might hurt your shoulder playing football in the backyard, but you're not certain if it's bad enough that you should go to the ER,” Dr. Gutwein said. “We could X-ray the shoulder, see that it's not broken and determine that you just need a sling, which would be an urgent care visit. Or, your shoulder might be dislocated, and you need sedation to have it put back in place — that would be an emergency room visit. We can provide whichever level of care is needed, and you will be billed according to that level of care.”
The design choice matters because it removes a decision most patients aren't equipped to make. Sprain or fracture? Panic attack or heart attack? Choosing wrong at a conventional facility can mean paying emergency room prices for care that didn't require them.
At Parkview Southwest, the emergency department is open 24/7 and urgent care runs from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fourteen patient care rooms serve both functions. A provider makes the call.
“Combined urgent care/ED is a great model to get patients the right level of care at the right price,” Dr. Gutwein said. “If you're sick or if you're hurt, we want to help you get better quickly without the added uncertainty about where to seek care or what to expect.”
Extending the model to Marion
Parkview Marion will occupy 28,500 square feet on Corridor Drive at I-69 Exit 264 in Grant County. The facility will include 10 emergency exam rooms alongside a clinic wing housing family medicine, imaging, lab services, and specialty care across 19 additional exam rooms. Construction is being led by Indiana-based Garmong Construction and designed by Fort Wayne architecture firm Design Collaborative.
The strategic point isn't the building. It's what the building signals: Parkview is expanding a cost-lowering care model into a rural market that has historically had fewer options.
“Parkview Marion represents our promise to this community,” said Deb Potempa, market president of Parkview Health South. “As Marion continues to grow and evolve, we are investing in care that is accessible, responsive, and built around the needs of the people who live and work here.”
Site-neutral care as an affordability strategy
The ER/urgent care model is one piece of a broader Parkview commitment to site-neutral care — treating patients in the lowest-cost setting appropriate to their condition. The health system has also invested in freestanding ambulatory surgery centers that allow patients to access complex orthopedic and spine procedures outside of high-overhead hospital environments, further reducing costs for patients and their insurance plans.
The common thread across these investments is a rejection of the assumption that where care happens should be dictated by revenue rather than clinical need. It's leadership on affordability, not compliance with it.
“Access to timely emergency and urgent care is critical to the health and safety of any community,” Dr. Gutwein said of the Marion project. “Parkview Marion represents a meaningful investment in the well-being of Grant County, helping ensure residents can receive the right level of care, closer to home, when it matters most.”
Two facilities today. More to come. The building doesn't decide the bill anymore.
