Laredo City Council selects consulting firm to address medical needs

LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) - The Covid-19 pandemic shined a light on just how medically underserved the Laredo/Webb County community is.

Monday night, the Laredo City Council officially selected Healthcare Management Associates to provide consulting services to the county and city to help bridge any gaps in the local health services sector.

The healthcare consulting firm has already met with local stakeholders, such as physicians, to present their proposal and to get an idea of what is needed. Stephen Palmer, Principal Consultant for Healthcare Management Associates, tells KGNS what they were able to understand about the community, so far.

“In doing some preliminary analysis for our proposal,” said Palmer. “It looks like, among other things, that Laredo has fewer hospital beds per capita than other similarly situated communities in the state, has fewer primary care doctors per capita, fewer specialists, and so these are the categories that we will be looking at,” he added.

Palmer says this endeavor will take focused investment and a significant effort from all key stakeholders to make this mission a reality.

During the consulting firm’s presentation at the city council meeting, it was mentioned that this could be a 6-month process that could cost just under $225K.

The next step in this process is for the consulting firm to go to the city council with a set funding request.

Copyright 2022 KGNS. All rights reserved.

For more headlines. click here.