New clinic to take place of RoMedical
Published 12:00 am Friday, December 30, 2011
By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — RoMedical has left Novant, and another business will open a new urgent care clinic Monday in the same location at the corner of Lincolnton Road and Mitchell Avenue.
The Schumacher Group will open Rowan Urgent Care Center, the company’s first independent freestanding urgent care clinic, at 1035 Lincolnton Road. Schumacher bills itself as the third-largest emergency management firm in the country and already staffs and manages the emergency department at Rowan Regional Medical Center.
Schumacher retained a majority of RoMedical employees, including Dr. Michael Austen, board-certified in family medicine, who will serve as the administrative lead physician, said Tammy Mallow, interim administrator.
RoMed’s urgent care center closed Thursday, said Mallow, an independent urgent care consultant retained by Schumacher Group.
While the new center has no formal relationship with Novant, which owns Rowan Regional, “we are working with them to make the transition between the past center and the new one as seamless as possible,” Mallow said.
Rowan Urgent Care will open across the hallway from the former RoMed offices. Mallow said Schumacher needed more space and added a radiology staff and suite.
Ultimately, the new center likely will employ more people than RoMed’s clinic, she said.
The private, for-profit practice will accept most major health plans and Medicare. But unlike RoMed, which was a nonprofit organization, Rowan Urgent Care will not accept Medicaid.
That could change in the future, Mallow said, but for now the practice will offer several flat rates for uninsured patients to help make services more affordable. Flat rates will include x-rays, lab work and other procedures, she said.
“We are there to serve the community and want to work closely with primary care physicians, pediatricians and others in the continuum of care,” Mallow said. “We are not there to replace anybody.”
The center will operate seven days a week, evenings and weekends, including most holidays. No appointment is necessary.
Mallow said the practice will be active in the community, joining the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce and offering an occupational health program for area employers.
In addition to radiology, services available include onsite diagnostic labs to care for minor illnesses and injuries.
“We will work with Rowan Regional Medical Center closely to be that missing link in the community for urgent care,” Mallow said.
When RoMedical left Novant, the hospital approached Schumacher Group about filling the void, she said.
“It was a natural assumption because of the involvement Schumacher had with the ER,” she said. “They were already fairly well integrated into that health system.”
RoMed pulled out of Novant and joined Health Management Associates.
“Although they are no longer a Novant Medical Group practice, the doctors remain an important part of our medical staff,” said Robin Baltimore, hospital spokeswoman.
RoMedical has served Salisbury for about 20 years, offering urgent care, orthopaedics, sports medicine, spine surgery pain management, podiatry and physical therapy.
Dr. David Templeton, an emergency medicine physician at Rowan Regional, now will serve as medical director for Rowan Urgent Care.
The clinic’s phone number is 855-465-4068. The website is under construction.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.