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Urgent Care Center Exceeding Residents' Expectations

Medical and injury cases ranging from respiratory infections to broken bones have been seen and treated during the first month of operation of the MedFast Urgent Care Center at the Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John, a service of Parrish Medical Center (PMC). MedFast is North Brevard’s first comprehensive urgent care facility.

Response from the community has been excellent, according to PMC officials. The urgent care center is exceeding patient experience expectations and providing convenient access to healthcare services close to home.

Sprains and strains have been the most common injuries among the hundreds of urgent care needs seen by MedFast physicians.

Before MedFast’s opening many, or most, of those people seeking treatment would have gone to an emergency room, said Dr. David Williams, MedFast’s medical director and board-certified emergency medicine physician.

However, an urgent care center like MedFast gives them fast and less expensive health treatment than provided at emergency rooms, which are equipped, staffed and intended for serious and life-threatening cases.

“We’re accomplishing two things — taking care of people quickly and freeing up the emergency room for the cases it is designed to see,” Dr. Williams said. “We’re open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., so we’re also open and helping people when their primary care doctors’ offices are closed. We communicate with doctors about all treatment we provide to their patients.”

MedFast Urgent Care Center treats fractures; cuts needing stitches; acute pain; sprains and strains; infections; and other, nonlife-threatening medical conditions. Parrish Medical Center’s emergency department medical director Dr. Francisco Garcia said MedFast’s ability to treat a wide assortment of illnesses and injuries is a significant addition to the community’s healthcare system.

“Cooperation between the community, primary physicians, emergency departments and urgent care providers creates a network of options that gets people in the right hands at the right time for the right level of care,” said Dr. Garcia.

According to the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA), urgent care center scope of services are not at the same level as emergency departments, but are more extensive and comprehensive than retail care centers (often found in department stores such as Walmart, CVS, and other retail centers).

Retail clinics use nurse practitioners in principal care roles. Most urgent care centers employ primary care physicians to treat patients. MedFast goes one step further, employing emergency room-experienced physicians and other medical professionals in principal care roles.

There are over 8,500 urgent care centers in the U.S. and approximately 4,600 emergency departments, according to the UCAOA and AHA Trendwatch Sourcebook.

The MedFast Urgent Care Center at the Parrish Healthcare Center is located at 5005 Port St. John (east of I-95). The MedFast Urgent Care Center—PSJ can be reached at 321- 633-8620.

About MedFast Urgent Care
  • Emergency room-experienced physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Results/medical record of urgent care visits, including images, sent to patient’s primary care physician.
  • Most insurance plans and cash payments are accepted for services.
  • Advanced urgent care services include: abdominal pain; asthma/bronchitis/sinusitis, cellulitis; infections (ear, urinary tract, respiratory, etc.); fractures; gastrointestinal (GI) or genitourinary (GU) complaints; general medicine; headaches; lacerations (stitches); pelvic pain; sprains/strains/sports injuries; physicals: annual/basic (ages 18+), camp, executive, school, sports and DOT/DOE/OSHA/Resp.
  • The MedFast Urgent Care Center has use of the full-service diagnostic services available at Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John, which includes: CT; MRI; ultrasound; x-ray; mammography (all digital); heart function testing (stress, nuclear, EKG and others); laboratory (blood) testing; full-time physician specialists; diabetes support and education; wound healing; physical and occupational therapy; and sleep disorder diagnosis and treatment.