Urgent Care on Call

With the changing healthcare landscape, urgent care center MedExpress has been adapting to the increase of individuals it treats.

By Anthony Bucci, Assistant Editor On Jan 29, 2015

Founded in 2001, urgent care center MedExpress treats patients of all ages for “injury and illness like the flu, broken bones, cuts and more, without the need for an appointment or a visit to the emergency room.”

With 139 locations in 11 states across the country, including 15 in New Jersey, each of the company’s centers accepts most health insurance and has medical teams of board certified physicians, registered nurses, X-ray technicians and other professionals that provide preventative, basic and emergency care for low-to mid-severity non-life threatening injury and illness.

“Urgent care centers have been popping up throughout many communities across the country and are becoming more vital, especially today,” says Dr. Dheeraj Taranath, regional medical director for MedExpress in New Jersey. “MedExpress provides a place for families and individuals to go to if they can’t get in to see their doctor and don’t want to go to the emergency room. We provide care seven days a week, twelve hours a day.

“Patients can come to our centers for timely quality care for things like X-rays, EKGs, stiches and IV fluids,” Taranath continues. “These are some things that many family doctors wouldn’t necessarily do at their own offices. This makes it easier for people to take care of certain medical instances quickly and effectively.”

The company also provides a program called CorporateCare^® to employers, with a focus on the treatment of workplace injuries and job-related medical issues that are associated with pre- and ongoing employment.

“We designed [CorporateCare^®] so that employers can provide their employees with top-notch care in order to get them back to their regular duty as quickly as possible,” Taranath says. “In doing this, it gives employers a relationship with the doctor who is going to be caring for their employees. We work hand-in-hand with employers, because they like to have one point of contact. If an employer is trying to reach out to multiple doctors in order to make appointments and get care for their employees, it can keep an employee out of work longer than need be.”

Among the 15 centers in New Jersey, “each can see approximately 100 businesses, and that is a lot,” Taranath says.

And, with the changing healthcare landscape in the state and across the nation, urgent care centers are seeing an influx of patients who have health insurance for the first time, according to Taranath.

“With urgent care becoming more popular, our biggest challenge is being able to manage the increase in the number of patients we are seeing,” he says. “We are becoming the first point-of-contact for many people who have never had health insurance before.”

To help assist with the increase in patients, Taranath says MedExpress is constantly “looking for ways to evolve and design new services that are needed in different areas.”

 

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