Press Release - MD Now Urgent Care: Florida's First Urgent Care Center Certified by the UCAOA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Peter Lamelas, MD, MBA
June 26, 2009 Phone: 561-688-5808

MD Now Urgent Care Centers: First in Florida to Receive Certification in Urgent Care

Florida’s First Certified Urgent Care Center is MD Now Urgent Care: MD Now Urgent Care Medical Centers of Palm Beach County Florida has become the first in the State to receive formal recognition as a Certified Urgent Center by the Urgent Care Association of America.

Palm Beach Gardens, FL (PRWEB) June 26, 2009 – MD Now Urgent Care Medical Centers of Palm Beach County Florida has become the first in the State to receive formal recognition as a Certified Urgent Center, making it one of a select few around the country that have met all of the criteria as delineated by Urgent Care Association of America.

With the rising cost of healthcare, more consumers are choosing urgent care centers as a less costly and more convenient option to a lengthy visit at a crowded emergency room - particularly in Southern Florida where the local population swells by up to forty percent at the height of the tourist season, often creating dangerously overcrowded conditions in Florida’s emergency departments.

Urgent care centers fill the gap between the ER and the primary care doctor, offering increased convenience and affordability for those times when immediate medical attention is required and patients cannot wait for a scheduled appointment with their primary care provider.

There are also medical conditions which cannot be handled in a regular doctor’s office. MD Now is equipped with digital X-ray, EKG machines, and an onsite lab and always has a licensed physician on duty to perform procedures like suturing, cyst removal and minor casting. Urgent care centers are most known for their expedient, affordable and professional treatment of the unexpected cuts, burns, sprains or fractures that are too costly and time consuming to be handled in an emergency department.

With its certification, MD Now Urgent Care Centers and the Urgent Care Association of America demonstrate their commitment toward providing patients with access to appropriate levels of care.

What’s the difference between an urgent care center and an ER or doctor’s office?

While some doctors extend their hours on a limited basis in the evenings or on the weekends, not all would be considered “urgent care” by the Urgent Care Association of America - or most insurance companies, for that matter. Retail clinics located within supermarkets or similar retail facilities, pain management clinics, or chiropractic offices also do not qualify as urgent care due to their limited scope of services.

Nor do most insurance companies consider it urgent care when hospital emergency rooms hold themselves out to the public as urgent care or “fast track” units, then later bill patients based on the same exorbanent fee schedule used by the emergency department. A series of recent articles in the Chicago Tribune reveals this problem as a growing concern to consumers.[1]

MD Now Urgent Care Walk-In Medical Centers is the leading provider of urgent care medical services in Palm Beach County, Florida, offering services including, but not limited to, urgent care, primary care and occupational medicine. Most patients are seen, treated and released in less than an hour.

For a growing number of large employers and small businesses who are required by law to provide treatment for their employees who become injured on the job, MD Now Urgent Care Centers are the logical choice for corporate medical care.

MD Now’s medical centers are open from 8:00am to 8:00pm and are located in Palm Beach Gardens, Lake Worth, Royal Palm Beach, and Boca Raton. Two new locations are scheduled to open in the fall of 2009 in West Palm Beach and Boynton Beach.

The founder of the centers, Dr. Peter Lamelas, spent almost 17 years running one of the busiest emergency departments in Palm Beach County at Columbia Hospital in West Palm Beach and has a Masters degree in Business Administration as well.

“I knew I could do a better job than any ER, and most doctors’ offices,” says Lamelas. “Patients pay a lot of money for their medical care. They demand high quality treatment in a safe and private environment, and they want it delivered in an efficient manner. I think we succeed highly in providing that to all of our patients.”

[1] “Chicago Tribune Examines Hospital Pricing Problems”, Immediate Care Business Magazine. May 28, 2009.

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