RUMFORD — A new walk-in clinic for the treatment of minor illnesses and injuries has opened at Rumford Hospital.

“Urgent Care is a medical alternative for non-life threatening illnesses or injuries when provider offices are closed or if you don’t have a physician or visiting the area,” said Sue Rivet, director of outpatient services for Bridgton and Rumford.

The goal of Urgent Care is to provide affordable healthcare for children and adults with, but not limited to, sore throats, ear aches, flu symptoms, minor cuts and bruises, minor infections, urinary tract infections, allergies, tick bites, simple fractures and skin rashes.

Rumford Urgent Care, which opened Monday, is the second Central Maine HealthCare (CMHC) Urgent Care to open and is developed on the same model as Bridgton Hospital.

Urgent Care, developed over the last 10 months, is located on the second floor in the Specialty Clinic Wing of Rumford Hospital. The walk-in clinic also provides an alternative to high cost emergency room visits.

Urgent Care will be staffed with physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Hours of operation to start will be Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from 5-9 p.m. The newly remodeled waiting room area includes a television and some high top tables. Phone number for Urgent Care is 369-1127.

Urgent Care hours will increase with demand of services.

Rivet, who also set up the Urgent Care facility in Bridgton, said “40 percent of our patients in emergency care right now are really Urgent Care level visits — ear aches, sore throats, etc. Urgent Care was started in Bridgton (three years ago) as a result of patient visits in emergency rooms were “swelling up with patients who had ear aches, sore throats, etc., those with lower level care.”

“What we found was, we were bringing people in who were on their way home, didn’t have time to go to the doctors, didn’t want to lose work. They’ve got to be there. They need money to live. They were coming in. ‘I’ve got a sore throat. I’ve had it all day. I called my doctor’s office and they told me to stop here.’ They either didn’t have an appointment available for them, and access is an issue, or they couldn’t get the time off,” she said.

Advantages with Urgent Care compared to Emergency Room care is the ability of patients to get in and out faster, as well as decreased costs.

“We want to decrease costs, with Obama Care coming, more people with insurance. People still have high co-pays with Obama Care. It doesn’t mean it’s affordable, but they have coverage if it’s something that’s large, big and expensive,” said Rivet.

“With that, we want to try to contain the cost as much as possible for people so that it makes it affordable. Whereas we know emergency rooms are expensive and they’re really meant for the bigger trauma. It’s practical for the patient and practical for the hospital. It’s less overhead, so we can provide that care at lesser cost,” she noted.

Rivet said Urgent Care is not set up on an Emergency Room model. It’s actually set up as a physician office; same pricing as a physician office.

“What I found, by history, insurance companies are now picking up on the Urgent Care. They’re encouraging people to use the Urgent Care. Some policies will say that if you have this, this, this for a diagnosis, you will have to use emergency care. We will pay not if you go to an emergency room. Now what we’re starting to see on insurance cards is Urgent Care co-pays. It’s either the same as in physician’s practice or between a physician’s practice and an emergency room co-pay,” she said.

Rivet was asked about the timing of starting Urgent Care here at the start of flu season as well as the Ebola hysteria.

“Actually, it’s going to be good. Are we going to see Ebola in this area? We don’t know. We could. My fear with this whole Ebola scare is that it’s going to be the people who think they have it or are worried.”

“The good part is, about being here, the documentation in Urgent Care is the physician practice record. So if they is a physician practice here, and they have their doctor with us, we’re going to be in their same record. So all the notes will be inclusive and the doc will have it right there. When they come in, our doc will send them a flag, ‘I saw your patient last night…’ so there’s always going to be that continuity of care,” said Rivet.

If a patient doesn’t a physician and they come to Urgent Care, Rivet said the initial paperwork requires about seven to 10 minutes of taking down their information orally. “We encourage them to get a primary care physician, but in the generation today, a lot of them want it now. They want service now and don’t want to have to bother with an appointment. They want to be able to come in, quick access care, gone, but they’re looking for quality as well.”

“So we’re hoping that we can meet all those needs of the new generation. And some people don’t want a primary care physician. They don’t want to be told that they need to quit smoking. They want to go in, deal with the problem at the time, and be done with it. And we do see that in Urgent Care. They’re not interested in that annual physical. They want to take care of what’s wrong today,” said Rivet.

“If they don’t have a primary care physician, we certainly will follow up with them. They’re welcome to come here for a followup. If it’s something orthopedic, like a small fracture or something, we’ll get them in and refer them to orthopedics, and encourage them to get a primary care physician. But we could do their followup if we needed to,” she said.

“We prefer to keep it as Urgent Care, as a one-time visit, but not everyone is going to have primary care or choose not to, and they’re still welcome to come back, said Rivet.

As far as the breakdown in patients, Rivet said that in Bridgton, their Urgent Care is seeing about 29 percent children.

Illnesses and injuries not treated in Urgent Care include chest pain, neck pain, headaches (including migraine headaches), head injuries, bleeding issues and broken bones. The Emergency Department is available at all times for Urgent Care backup services.

“We do not do narcotic refills. We don’t prescribe narcotics. It has to match the injury or whatever they’re here for, and it has to be a real injury, as we know. If they need to be referred, we can refer them. If they already have a doctor and they have a contract with a physician for their narcotics, we’ll not refill. They go back and see their primary care,” said Rivet.

“My guess is that we’re probably going to go fulltime quickly. We’re not really sure how it’s going to go at first. We picked Monday, Wednesday and Friday as that is exactly how we opened Bridgton, with one provider. And it built quickly. We already have another provider getting credentialed, to come on board at the end of December. So we’re thinking that by the end of December that we’ll be fulltime,” she said.

The fulltime hours will weekdays from 5-9 p.m., because it’s after hours type of care, and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Prior to going fulltime, she said an open house is being planned.

Rivet said Urgent Care is becoming increasingly popular. “They’re popping up all over the country. There’s about 9,000 right now.

They’re still relatively new in Maine, just over the last five years. Urgent Care clinics are located in Waterville, in Walmart in Auburn, and clinics by Mercy in Windham and Gorham.

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