CHI Franciscan Health, CityMD open urgent care center in Seattle
The healthcare providers plan to open several more centers in the urban market by early 2017.
Pacific Northwest nonprofit health system CHI Franciscan Health, and CityMD, a New York-based urgent care provider, have opened their first West Coast urgent care center in Seattle. Located in the Ravenna neighborhood, it is the first of several urgent care centers throughout King and Pierce counties that are scheduled to open by early 2017.
The goal of the new center is to provide local residents with access to healthcare services when their primary care doctor is closed and they want to avoid the emergency room. The location, which is staffed by two emergency medicine-trained doctors and other staff members, including an X-ray technician, will be open seven days a week: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
[Also: Kindred, CHI Franciscan team up to build inpatient rehab hospital in Seattle market]
In addition to the care provided to patients during their visit, CityMD is offering its Aftercare service; Aftercare is a proprietary service unique to CityMD. It is staffed by physicians, clinicians and referral coordinators who manage notices to primary care doctors, and contact patients following a visit to see how they responded to treatment. If necessary, they will also handle referrals to specialists.
The ultimate aim of Aftercare, according to CityMD, is to ensure that patients are receiving care continuity and fully addressing ongoing health needs.
For CHI Franciscan, it's the second partnership that has been announced in recent weeks. On Aug. 1, CHI Franciscan and Louisville-based Kindred Healthcare announced a joint venture to build a 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital.
Monetary terms of that deal were not disclosed, but Kindred, which already runs two transitional care hospitals, two nursing centers and two hospital-based sub-acute care facilities, will manage the day-today operations of the new facility. It will care for adults recovering from conditions such as stroke, neurological disease, injury to the brain or spinal cord and other long-term illnesses or injuries.
Twitter: @JELagasse
