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The MedExpress urgent care center at 430 Cooley St., Springfield, opens Wednesday, Sept. 30. the clinic hosted an open house Tuesday.
(JIM KINNEY/ THE REPUBLICAN)
SPRINGFIELD - MedExpress Urgent Care opened its newest clinic Wednesday, Sept. 30, after hosting tours and a community open house Tuesday.
The location has 12 patient exam rooms, an X-ray imaging room as well as a small laboratory. It's a former Friendly's location at 430 Cooley St. in the city's Sixteen Acres neighborhood.
Once it opens, MedExpress will be open 12 hours a day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, said Brandon Pena, a field marketing coordinator for MedExpress who led tours of the facility Tuesday.
There is always at least one doctor on duty as well as an X-ray technician and registered nurses.
"We can do everything from colds and flu to injuries," Pena said.
A list of the insurance plans that MedExpress accepts can be found here.
MedExpress offers stitches, intravenous treatments and some laboratory tests. It does employee drug testing and other workplace health tasks as well as basic wellness care.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno was on the tour along with other city and state elected officials. Sarno said clinics like MedExpress take the pressure off the city's emergency rooms at Baystate Medical Center or Mercy Medical Center by treating many ailments that don't need that level of care but become a hospital trip when primary care doctors are not available.
The neighborhood has become a bit of a center for such clinics, with the long-established Family Care Medical Center around the corner at 1515 Allen St. and Doctors Express at 415 Cooley St. across the street from MedExpress.
MedExpress is a chain based in Morgantown, West Virginia, and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, with offices in in Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The Massachusetts locations include an office that's already open at 1505 Memorial Drive in Chicopee, one on East Main Street in Westfield that opens next week and planned locations in Wilbraham and Pittsfield.