Mega Doctor News
By Roy Martinez
As originally published in Mega Doctor News newsprint edition
Solara Hospitals have been providing much needed services to the medical community of South Texas. The first Solara Hospital was built in Harlingen about seven years ago. It offers long term acute care to the adult population in our area. About a year after the Harlingen facility opened, the campus in Brownsville was built. The facilities operate as one hospital. Solara also has facilities in McAllen and Edinburg.
The hospital is designed as a bridge to fill a need to continue care. It is intended to provide services for pulmonary and wound care management, and for medically complex patients. Cary Montalvo, the CEO of Solara in Harlingen and Brownsville says, “All of our business comes from referrals. Patients do not show up at our front door, we do not have an emergency room so all of our business is referral based. When a physician decides a patient needs long term acute care they refer the patient to us.” Solara has 41 beds in Brownsville, and another 41 in Harlingen; included in that number are six intensive care beds at each campus, for a total of twelve intensive care beds.
According to Montalvo, the average stay for patients at Solara Hospital is 25 days. She says, “That’s what differentiates us from the hospitals such as Valley Baptist Medical Center, Harlingen and Brownsville, Harlingen Medical Center and Valley Regional Medical Center.” Montalvo adds, “Those are short term acute care hospitals in which patients are typically going to stay a week or less, but not all patients are ready to go home at that point so this is where we come in! We are part of the continuum of care when a patient needs long term antibiotics, long term wound care, are medically complex, and/or they need to be weaned off a ventilator which may take longer than a week so they come to us. We take care of them for an average of 25 days.”
Asked about the challenges being faced by hospitals like Solara, Montalvo says, “Mainly the government and the different regulatory stipulations put on us as well as the financial reimbursements that have been challenging over the years.” Montalvo says long term acute care hospital expenses are not covered by Medicaid in Texas. She continues to add; “There are many lives in our community covered only by Medicaid. Those patients do not have access to our services because Medicaid does not cover them.”
Solara’s Brownsville and Harlingen hospitals are run by Montalvo who serves as CEO of the medical facilities. Montalvo attended and graduated from Baylor University and later enrolled at Trinity University where she completed her Masters Degree in healthcare administration in 2008. Montalvo chose healthcare because, “I always excelled in my science classes and my math classes, so when it came time to select a major in college I decided to choose something that was behind the scenes in the healthcare field. I chose laboratory science and became a medical technologist. I love healthcare and the benefit it provides our community.”
Solara Hospital has facilities in Harlingen and Brownsville, at 333 Lorenaly Drive in Brownsville and 508 Victoria Lane in Harlingen. Solara Hospitals are owned and operated by Cornerstone Healthcare Group. If you have any questions or would like more information on their services you can call 956-546-0808. MDN
