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Friday, August 24, 2007 CHADDS FORD -- A new urgent care center will soon open on Route 202 just north of Route 1. Pioneer Urgent Care Center will debut Sept. 4 in the Shoppes at Chadds Ford, a new strip shopping center on the southbound side of Route 202. Currently under construction, the 33,000-square-foot center is being developed by Lee Fisher, who owns Fisher Carpet One. His expanded retail flooring store will form the centerpiece of the shopping center. The brainchild of three Paoli Hospital emergency room physicians, Pioneer will treat patients -- without need of an appointment -- for a variety of illnesses and injuries that aren’t life-threatening. Among these are cough, flu, sinus infection, sore throat, earache, broken bones, sprains, burns and other minor health problems. The three partners are Dr. Stuart Brilliant, Dr. Duane Godshall and Dr. Sally Speck. All will continue to work in the Paoli Hospital ER while making sure that at least one physician is at the new center whenever it’s open --- seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Dr. Brilliant said, “People are sometimes reluctant to visit an urgent care center because they don’t know what conditions it treats. They’re more popular in other parts of the country, where they thrive as an alternative to local emergency rooms and family doctors.” One impediment to urgent care centers in the Philadelphia region has long been spotty insurance coverage for the services these centers offer. Brilliant said that Pioneer just signed a contract with Independence Blue Cross and is working on patient coverage from Aetna and United Healthcare. Among the challenges for a new center such as this one, in Brilliant’s view, are educating the public about what medical issues to bring to such a place and how to market and advertise its services. Brilliant and his partners want Pioneer to be seen as a treatment alternative to over-crowded ERs and fully booked family and primary-care physicians. The center will have its own X-ray machine, lab testing (including capability for complete blood counts, comprehensive chemistry, blood coagulation and glucose tests), and the ability to start intravenous fluids, including medications for pain and nausea. Other offerings will include occupational health services for local businesses, plus school and work physicals. Brilliant maintains that Pioneer will differ from the typical urgent care center model because it will be staffed by ER physicians, rather than the more typical family or primary-care doctors. The Urgent Care Association of America, based in Warrenville, Ill., estimates that there are about 17,000 urgent care centers across the country --- with 70 of those in Pennsylvania and 13 in the Philadelphia region, including several that hospitals themselves have started, said Lou Ellen Horwitz, the trade group’s executive director. Urgent care centers are especially popular in Arizona, Florida and Illinois, largely through happenstance and the presence in those states of “entrepreneurially minded doctors to start them,” she added. The industry is dominated by entrepreneurs and regional companies, with two -- Solantic and Concentra Health Services Inc. -- recently announcing aggressive expansion plans. A recent survey by Press Ganey Associates, a South Bend, Ind.-based health-care survey firm, found that the average ER visit today takes four hours, while most urgent care patients are in-and-out in under an hour. Patients should always go immediately to the ER if they experience the following symptoms: chest pain, difficulty breathing, severe bleeding or head trauma, loss of consciousness, and sudden loss of vision or blurred vision. To contact staff writer Sarah E. Moran, send an e-mail to smoran@dailylocal.com. |
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