Goliad Family Practice is at 139 W. Franklin. It closes for good on Friday, Nov. 13. Cuero Regional Hospital has run the clinic since 2015, when it bought the practice from local doctors to keep it from closing.
After that date, Goliad's medical care doesn't disappear. It moves to three other towns: Cuero, Yorktown and Victoria. The town of Goliad keeps a pharmacy, a dental office and a 24-hour ambulance service. Where your next doctor's appointment happens depends on where your provider went, and Goliad County EMS expects to get more calls once the clinic closes.
Why a Cuero hospital ran a Goliad clinic in the first place
The clinic was always an unusual arrangement. The Goliad Advance-Guard reported that the practice is outside Cuero Regional Hospital's taxing district, but the health system covered its day-to-day costs for more than a decade anyway. Now the hospital is putting that money and staff back into its own district. Its written statement called the decision difficult and said focusing resources locally meets its financial duty to the taxpayers who support it.
Goliad lost another clinic two months earlier. Goliad Health & Wellness closed in August, so by mid-November the town will have lost both of the clinics it had at the start of the summer. Their providers didn't stop practicing. They spread out across the region, so getting your records to the right place matters more than usual this fall.
Three roads out of town
Cuero Health says patients can move their care to other clinics in its network, and both closures came with announced new locations for the providers.
| Provider | Previously in Goliad at | New location | Phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Watts-Powell, primary care and obstetrics | Goliad Family Practice | Parkside Family Clinic, Cuero | 361-275-2800 |
| Lorie Vernor, family nurse practitioner | Goliad Family Practice | Cuero Medical Clinic and Yorktown Medical Clinic | 361-275-3466 / 361-564-9230 |
| Dr. Lemley, obstetrics | Network provider | Yorktown or Cuero | 361-564-9230 / 361-275-3466 |
| Dr. Harvey, obstetrics | Network provider | Parkside Family Clinic, Cuero | 361-275-2800 |
| Dr. Elizabeth Garza, primary care | Goliad Health & Wellness | Citizens Convenient Care Main, 105 Spring Green Blvd., Suite 500, Victoria | 361-582-5685 |
Obstetric care continues for current patients. Expectant mothers can keep seeing Dr. Watts-Powell at Parkside or book with Dr. Lemley in Yorktown or Cuero, or with Dr. Harvey at Parkside. The hospital is also working to place the clinic's employees in open jobs elsewhere in the network.
Dr. Garza is the closest thing to a familiar Goliad doctor still taking new patients. She starts at Citizens Medical Center on Monday, Nov. 2. Citizens marketing director Jennifer Mann told the Advance-Guard that "Goliad residents seeking a primary care provider can schedule an appointment with her by calling 361-582-5685."
To reschedule an appointment or request medical records from Goliad Family Practice, Cuero Health lists three numbers:
- Cuero Medical Clinic, 361-275-3466
- Parkside Family Clinic, 361-275-2800
- Yorktown Medical Clinic, 361-564-9230
What stays inside city limits
After Nov. 13, three health services will still have an address in town.
- Goliad Pharmacy & Gifts, 208 S. Commercial St., 361-645-3261, per the Goliad County Chamber of Commerce directory.
- Goliad Dental Care, 317 South Market Street, 361-645-2381. The office advertises same-day appointments for dental emergencies.
- Goliad County EMS, 414 W. Ward St., 361-645-8191. Paramedics and EMTs respond 24 hours a day.
None of the three is a primary care office. Checkups, sick visits and new prescriptions will now take place in Cuero, Yorktown or Victoria.
Why county EMS expects more calls
Goliad County EMS Director Holli Gregory expects the closure to add to her department's workload. Asked by the Advance-Guard whether she anticipates more calls for medical transports, she answered, "Yeah, absolutely." She said the local clinic "gave them a little bit of peace of mind to know that they could get some medical treatment here in town."
"With that option going away, I think that they're going to rely on us to provide that treatment for them."
Gregory told the paper the county may eventually need to look at alternatives to standard ambulance responses if the shortage continues. One is community paramedicine, where a paramedic visits patients at home, checks vital signs and medications, and works with their physician. Another is telehealth. She pointed to the Victoria Fire Department, which uses telehealth to help evaluate possible stroke patients while they are still in the ambulance.
Both are possibilities, not current services. Gregory said either one would take more money, and grants and other funding would have to be found before the county could start them. For now, Goliad County EMS stays what it has always been, a 24-hour emergency service.
The nearest hospital emergency rooms
Goliad has no hospital. Petition organizer Ginny Barnes told the Advance-Guard that the nearest hospitals, in Victoria, Beeville and Cuero, are each about 30 miles away. These are the emergency departments in those towns, as listed by each provider:
- Citizens Medical Center Emergency Department, 2701 Hospital Drive, Victoria, 361-573-9181
- DeTar Hospital Navarro, 506 E. San Antonio St., Victoria, 361-575-7441
- DeTar Hospital North, 101 Medical Drive, Victoria, 361-573-6100
- Cuero Regional Hospital ER, 2550 N. Esplanade St., Cuero, 361-275-6191, open 24/7
- CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Beeville Emergency Room, 1500 E. Houston St., Beeville, 361-354-2000, open 24 hours a day
In a true emergency, call 911. Goliad County EMS answers from inside the county.
Where the community response stands
The closure brought an organized response quickly. Barnes, who the Advance-Guard says has lived in Goliad about 15 years, started a petition against the closure. She planned to collect signatures at the Goliad Senior Citizens Center on the morning of Oct. 15 and then at other spots around town, and she hopes to take residents' concerns to the Cuero Health hospital board. "It's going to put a financial burden on the patients and our EMS," she told the paper.
Barnes also talked about holding a protest on the Goliad County Courthouse lawn, though no date had been set. Residents discussed going to the Cuero Health board meeting scheduled for Oct. 22. There had been talk that another health system might take over the Goliad building, but Citizens Medical Center said it has no immediate plans to open a clinic in Goliad and will try to fit Goliad patients into its affiliated primary care clinics in Victoria.
The hospital's announced last day hasn't changed. Goliad Family Practice closes Friday, Nov. 13, and the three Cuero Health numbers above are where patients can transfer their records.
The Zaplac Group follows changes like this across Goliad and the rest of the Crossroads. If you have questions about Goliad, from the courthouse square to the ranch roads outside town, Contact The Team.
