‘New level of convenience’
UnityPoint Clinic Express opens Monday
A clinic designed to deliver a more convenient level of care will be the first business to open in the new Corridor Plaza.
UnityPoint Clinic Express, 2728 Second Ave. S., opens on Monday.
To celebrate that achievement, a special Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance ribbon cutting was held on Friday.
Leah Glasgo, president and CEO of UnityPoint Health — Fort Dodge, showed her appreciation for the staff that has been preparing for the opening.
“Our Clinic Express team, the ladies here to my right, their investment and time into getting this facility up and running and the practicing they have been doing to be able to deliver on our express model is pretty amazing,” Glasgo said. “We really thank them for their work and dedication and look forward to Monday when they can show the great care we have.”
In terms of being the first to open in the Crossroads Mall redevelopment effort, Glasgo said it’s an honor for UnityPoint.
“It’s a great honor and privilege to be a part of this growth in our community,” Glasgo said. “We know the importance of that for us to be part of the economic engine of Fort Dodge and so we are honored to be here and be the first location opening up in the Corridor Plaza.”
Matt Romanin, UnityPoint Clinic COO, said UnityPoint Clinic Express is a “beautiful facility” and a “great model of care.”
The Fort Dodge clinic represents the 12th Clinic Express opened by UnityPoint.
“If you go into UnityPoint Clinic Express in any of our communities, you will get the same look and same feel,” Romanin said. “UnityPoint Clinic Express really marries that always strong tradition of high quality health care you get from UnityPoint Clinic with a new experience, a new look and a new level of convenience. We see time and time again that patients are in and out typically in about 30 minutes. We view this as high quality, high service, certainly high touch medicine.”
Romanin added, “I hope you never have to use it, but I hope you really love it if you do.”
Amanda Kuchenreuther is one of the nurse practitioners who will be working at the Clinic Express.
She said the Express model limits the time patients wait in a clinic.
“A clinical care attendant will greet you at the door, take you back to your exam suite, they will register you there, they will get your vital signs before the provider comes in,” she said. “The provider will come in they will do their assessment, exam, order what they need to order. If there are things to be done that same clinical care attendant will come back in to see you. If you need an X-ray done, they will be the one taking you to do that also.”
She said the same attendant will also discharge the patient.
One change at the Express Clinic involves X-rays.
“One of the most exciting things that is different from what we are doing now is we can do X-rays within our clinic,” Kuchenreuther said. “They are digital, so they will be able to send those off and we will be able to get results in a quicker time frame where radiology can see them right away as far as a radiologist reading it and us as providers.”
The Express Clinic will also offer sports physicals for $39 cash pay.
The building has five exam suites. One will be used for patients who reserved a specific time online. Another room will be reserved for procedures like lacerations or fractures.
The Express Clinic replaces the Walk-In Clinic, also known as Urgent Care, on the main campus of Trinity Regional Medical Center.
The new clinic provides better access for residents needing care, Kuchenreuther said.
“It’s easier access to people when they are already out and about in the community and having it in an area where there is so much development happening,” she said.
Express clinics are best used when your primary care provider is not available and you have a health need that is urgent but not life-threatening, such as:
•Cough, cold, flu and sore throat
• X-ray
• Ear ache, ear pain and ear infections
• Infections, UTIs
• Rashes or minor allergic reactions
• Minor cuts or stitches
• Broken bones
• Muscle aches and sprains
• Minor burns
• Nausea, dizziness or vomiting
• Fever without convulsion
• Neck or back pain
The Walk-In clinic (or formerly “urgent care”) will be transitioning to UnityPoint Clinic Express. Therefore, the Walk-In clinic located at the Trinity Regional Medical Center campus will no longer exist. Individuals will be able to access walk-in care at the new Express Clinic.