Doctor’s Express Urgent Care Clinic: Providing a much-needed alternative to costly ER visits and extraordinary wait times with primary care physician appointments

Doctor’s Express Urgent Care Clinic is a proposed urgent care facility in Salem, Massachusetts that would provide the citizens of Salem a much-needed alternative to costly emergency room visits and the extraordinary wait times that often come with primary care physician appointments.

Across the country, healthcare costs are spinning out of control, ER visits being one of the chief culprits. Urgent care has provided a critical alternative, giving patients a new and realistic option to receive medical care that is competitive on location, price and convenience.

For patients, it means relief.  For everyone else, it means a sustainable new industry that’s just beginning to take off.

No one likes going to the emergency room. It’s widely recognized as one of the least pleasant experiences imaginable.

And yet we keep showing up in emergency rooms in record numbers.

Most aren’t emergencies.

So people are turning to the emergency room for care not because they want to, but because they don’t want to wait days or weeks to get care from their doctor.

120 million ER visits takes its toll on ER staff. Physicians get overworked, and waiting times shoot through the roof.

It’s a vicious cycle, and one that hurts everyone involved: patients, doctors and staff.

In addition to the long waiting times (sometimes more than eight hours!), patients also pay for these ER visits with their wallets.

If only a sick person could walk into an establishment without an appointment, see a qualified doctor in minutes and be back home within the hour, all without having to pay the equivalent of a big screen TV just to have their allergies treated.

Urgent Care is that option, and it’s being embraced all over the US as a vastly superior alternative to today’s model. We’re bringing that convenience, speed and quality of care to Massachusetts.

With Doctor’s Express, patients can:

• Walk through the door
• See a qualified doctor almost instantly
• Get a (reasonable) price list before you pay
• Know that your health insurance covers most of the cost
• Get a follow-up call the next day

Now that’s more like it.

At Doctor’s Express, you’re in complete control. No waiting for hours on end. No exorbitant or surprise costs. It’s healthcare on your terms.

UCCs employ the same fully licensed physicians, and typically have most of the same advanced diagnostic equipment as hospitals.

It’s the same standard of care for a far more reasonable cost, and with incredible flexibility.

No appointments (you can even pre-register online).

No missing school or work to meet with your family physician.

Come  363 days a year, 14 hours a day.

UCCs are also in dramatically more convenient locations.

Our proposed second location is in Salem, just north of Boston. It’s across the street from a Starbucks, a Boston Market and a major supermarket. It’s the most-trafficked retail spot in town.

Grab your groceries, have lunch and see a doctor. All in a couple of hours.

That’s what Doctor’s Express will mean to the town of Salem.

Our proposed location in Salem will be our second. The first, just seven miles away in Beverly, is set to break ground on construction in February. Doctor’s Express is a national franchise, treating over 150,000 patients in Massachusetts annually, and is part of American Family Care, with more than 165 clinics nationwide in 27 states.

It’s the largest US urgent care franchise.

UCCs are already becoming a more popular form of healthcare in Massachusetts, and Doctor’s Express is no exception. There are many big name companies that are also customers: Home Depot and Staples, for example, use Doctor’s Express for their workers compensation cases.

We’ve also established a relationship with Steward Health Care, the second largest hospital in the state. That relationship includes the mutual referral of patients.

Want to hear more about the Doctor’s Express opportunity? Click the “business profile” tab at the top of this page to learn more!
 

Zaka Shafiq attended the University of Toronto, graduating with honors with a degree in political science and international relations. Upon graduation, he became director of a petrochemical and plastics supply company. His responsibilities with the organization included marketing and website development in addition to assisting with the growth of new revenue lines totaling in excess of over $3 million dollars annually. Zaka was also responsible for developing and overseeing a new steel import division for the organization that generated several hundred thousand of additional revenue for the company. In May 2013, he completed his Masters of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.