Local urgent care facilities strive to provide immediate health care

Feb. 27—ENID, Okla. — From injuries to illness and all other medical concerns, Enid's urgent care clinics have one goal: treat immediate health care needs as quickly as possible to every member of the community.

Both Xpress Wellness Urgent Care and Integris Urgent Care Plus in Enid offer a variety of services, accept almost all insurance plans and have made adjustments to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic environment.

From stitches and X-rays to common illnesses such as the cold/flu or ear infections, facilities can see and treat most non-life threatening concerns as quickly as possible, Xpress Wellness spokesperson Alicia Walker said.

"That really is the premise of our care — is that we treat urgent needs without having to make an appointment," Walker said.

Xpress Wellness

Enid's Xpress Wellness location, 220 S. Van Buren, opened in March 2014.

Since then, it has expanded to 26 different locations in Oklahoma and Kansas, including Ardmore, Guymon, Ponca City, Sapulpa and McAlester. Walker said expansion has given Xpress Wellness the opportunity to bring health care options to rural communities.

"That niche of rural healthcare is something we hold near and dear because of the people we serve," she said. "Our motto is, 'If you meet a need, you make a friend, and if you make a friend, you have an opportunity to touch a life, and if you touch a life, you can make a difference.' We hope to make a difference in rural health care, and this footprint helps us do that."

Some of the services Xpress Wellness offers are urgent care, including minor fractures, sprains, cuts, infections and minor burns; primary care, including wellness visits and heart health monitoring; pediatric and adult care; sports injuries, including dislocations and strains; and occupational medicine.

There are a few things Xpress Wellness and other urgent care facilities, like Integris Urgent Care, do not treat and instead recommend an emergency room for: chest pain or difficulty breathing, slurred speech, severe burns, head injuries, seizures and weakness or numbness on one side.

Blue Cross Blue Shield, Medicare, United Healthcare, Aetna, Medicaid, Soonercare and most other major carriers are accepted at Xpress Wellness, Walker said, and a full list can be found on its website. Integris also accepts most major insurance plans.

Amenities offered through Xpress Wellness include private exam rooms, a procedure room, a treatment room, computerized radiology services, lab services, diagnostic testing and EKG on site and telemedicine. The Enid location is has six exam rooms, a procedure room for things like stitches and IVs and an X-ray room, Walker said.

One of the integral parts of Xpress Wellness' care is that it can be done virtually and quickly. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Walker said the facility has heavily utilized virtual check-in and virtual visits — whatever is most convenient for the patients.

"Our top priority has always been — even separate from the pandemic — to keep the safety of all of our patients and guests as a top priority, so it seemed appropriate for us to shift from ... 'Hey, let's have all these people sit in the waiting room where everybody's germs are touching everybody else,' to really minimize that patient waiting time," she said.

Walker added a lot of people aren't aware of how many conditions can be diagnosed through a virtual visit, such as a urinary tract infection.

"It's about educating the community on how they can simplify their lives with virtual encounters and minimize their own exposure," Walker said. "That's something that we've really tried to take advantage of during this pandemic is making sure that people understand that there are options in the way that they receive care."

The Xpress Wellness location in town has treated a number of residents for COVID-19 symptoms and has provided testing over the course of the last year — even partnering with the city of Enid last summer to utilize a few empty downtown offices to provide a space for additional tests, Walker said.

Xpress Wellness offers rapid and PCR COVID-19 tests and curbside testing, and Walker said Xpress Wellness recommends anyone eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine and the flu vaccine.

With COVID-19 vaccines becoming more available to the general population, Walker said a lot of the avenues created during the pandemic regarding health care options won't be going away, but they will continue to offer in-person visits for anyone preferring those.

"We're dealing everywhere — not just in Enid and surrounding communities, but everywhere — ... with different generations of age groups who prefer to have health care, or any care, in certain types of settings," she said. "but we also recognize that the pandemic has created an avenue where people who may not have elected to do virtual things before are really expanding their palate for that."

Walker said in order to do this, Xpress Wellness locations statewide will continue to remain flexible, offering curbside services and even expanding the services into primary care, such as getting blood work done and monitoring blood pressure, though it's still in development.

She added that with this will be an initial, in-person visit during which the patient would get a take-home kit of materials to monitor blood pressure and other things, with subsequent visits conducted virtually.

Integris Urgent Care

Integris Bass Baptist Health Center has two urgent care locations in Enid: Urgent Care Plus, 1805 W. Garriott, and Urgent Care North, 2821 N. Van Buren, though the North location has temporarily paused its services as staff assist the main hospital with inpatients due to COVID-19.

Integris Urgent Care Plus offers a variety of services, including assessment and treatment of minor illnesses and injuries, lab testing services, laceration repairs and splinting for injuries, said Deb Witt, director of physician operations with Integris.

After any assessment, Witt said Urgent Care staff refers patients to any specialists, if necessary, whether it's to orthopedics or cardiologists.

Like Xpress, Integris Urgent Care Plus recommends going to the emergency room for more severe health problems and symptoms involving the heart that could be signs of an attack.

Urgent Care Plus has six exam rooms, with one of those being a procedure room, a lab and an X-ray room, and Urgent Care North has five exam rooms, a lab area and an X-ray room, as well.

Integris Urgent Care Plus is providing COVID-19 testing, although it does not currently have rapid tests available, Witt said.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Witt said Integris Urgent Care Plus, in addition to already practicing healthy habits, followed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as wearing masks at all times and extra sanitizing.

"(We are) doing everything we can with those guidelines to ensure that we keep both our caregivers and the patients that seek care from us as safe as possible," Witt said. "That's one thing that, since the pandemic began through today, we have done consistently and not changed."

Practices the facility adopted during the pandemic such as telehealth and virtual visits won't diminish as the pandemic lessens, Witt said.

Patients can check in at Integris Urgent Care Plus from vehicles by calling the office, and those on staff will let the patient know how many are in the waiting room in order to keep up with social distancing guidelines, or they will call the patient to let them know they can come in and go directly to the examination room without a lobby wait.

"If you say, 'Necessity is the mother of invention,' well ... the challenges from COVID-19 presented an amazing opportunity for us to expand on how we reach patients, including the virtual environment with more telemedicine," Witt said. "I don't see telehealth going away. I think now that it's here, it's a good thing — just like curbside pickup at Walmart or at a restaurant."

Moving forward into 2021, Witt is encouraging folks to continue following CDC guidelines — hand-washing, social distancing and wearing masks — until herd immunity is reached through COVID-19 vaccines, which Witt encouraged people take.

One benefit of being part of a health care system, Witt said, is having good communication between other Integris facilities such as the Integris Bass Baptist Emergency Room.

Witt said there have been a few instances patients went to an Integris urgent care location with more serious medical concerns, and the staff called an ambulance for the patient. Another example is if patients insist on driving themselves to the ER, the urgent care staff will call the ER staff to let them know they should be expecting them soon.

Another benefit is having a unified system of records. Integris uses a software called Epic for all its facilities, Witt said, which allows "one patient, one record" no matter where in the Integris system they are located.

"If someone presents to the emergency department and has been seen by one of our primary care providers, they can access that record and vice versa," she said.

Above all, Integris Urgent Care and Xpress Wellness are here to provide patients one thing: help patients with their urgent needs.

"Don't be afraid to get the care you need," Witt said. "We are here to help you do that. We are open for business across the board ... We're here to help people. That's what we do."

Kelci McKendrick is police and court reporter for the Enid News & Eagle.

Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Do you have a story idea for Kelci? Send an email to kelcim@enidnews.com.