People who live in Derby and the surrounding communities south of Wichita no longer have to drive to Wichita to receive emergency medical care. On Monday, Wesley Healthcare opened its new emergency department in Derby.
Wesley opened the city’s first freestanding ER department, a state-of-the-art facility that cost $10 million. Construction took about eight months.
Derby Mayor Randy White says the new Wesley ER will be an asset to the region.
"I feel like this facility will not only serve Derby, but also Douglas and Rose Hill, Mulvane and some of the surrounding towns," White says.
The ER is at the corner of 63rd Street South and Rock Road, an area of Derby that the city expects to see more development in the future.
White says the city is growing out of its bedroom community status.
"I think one of the things that you see happening in Derby is that we are basically in a transition phase," he says. "We are becoming a destination community which basically means that a lot of the services people are looking for are going to be available right in our town."
White says Wesley’s facility is the first major development for that land, and plans are in the works for two or three other tenants to come in the next year.
More than 23,000 people live in Derby. The city has been growing over the past decade: Derby had a 31 percent growth rate from 2000 to 2016.
The new facility marks Wesley’s fifth emergency room location in the Wichita metro area. Wesley is expected to hire about a dozen people to operate the new ER.
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