With Saltzer in peril, another chain of urgent care clinics expands in the Boise area
As one string of urgent care clinics teeters on the brink of collapse, another is expanding.
Sterling Urgent Care, an employee-owned multipractice physician group with clinics in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, opened four Treasure Valley locations in late January, with a fifth slated for later this spring. The clinics are Sterling’s first in the Boise area.
The four clinics are located in Boise, Garden City, Meridian and Nampa. Sterling’s Boise location is next to Fred Meyer at the corner of West Overland Road and South Five Mile Road.
It offers membership plans for patients who don’t have insurance.
The medical group, based in Idaho Falls, prides itself on an “innovative” approach to health care, according to a news release from the business. Individual memberships cost $60 a month and family memberships, which include up to four people, cost $120 a month.
Sterling says the memberships are geared toward patients who don’t have health insurance, have high deductibles or prefer walk-in care.
Its expansion couldn’t come at a better time for the fast-growing region.
Saltzer Health, a medical group with 11 clinics in the Valley, announced Jan. 18 that it would close completely by the end of March, absent a last-minute sale.
Saltzer is owned by Salt Lake City-based nonprofit Intermountain Health Care. Intermountain cited the rising cost of providing care. Leaders of its local clinics told the Idaho Statesman they were not involved in the decision, nor were they informed in advance.
Saltzer operates the area’s only 24-hour, seven-day-a-week urgent-care clinic, located in the Ten Mile Crossing business development in southwest Meridian.
Sterling’s four new clinics were previously owned by American Family Care, or AFC, and some of the AFC signage has yet to be replaced on its buildings. AFC, based in Alabama, is one of the nation’s largest providers of urgent and primary care.
Sterling’s fifth Valley clinic is being built from the ground up. Its location has not been disclosed. Sterling did not return multiple calls and emails to a spokesperson and an email to the manager of its Boise clinic.
The medical group provides urgent care, primary care, telemedicine, women’s and men’s health services and specialized programs for weight loss, as well as IV infusions for people needing nutrients, hydration or recovery from sickness and hangovers, its news release said.
It also offers drug testing, physicals and workers’ compensation evaluations, and has X-rays and on-site labs. Each location has a pharmacy.
“This strategic expansion allows us to further serve the Boise community … ,” the business said in the news release. “We look forward to continuing our mission of providing accessible and high-quality medical services to our valued patients.”
Primary care clinic opens downtown
Riverside Primary Care, an independently owned and operated primary care group formed in May, opened its first clinic Jan. 8 in downtown Boise.
The clinic, located at 1673 W. Shoreline Drive, Suite 100, offers adult and geriatric care. It accepts most insurance plans, private pay and Medicare patients, according to a news release sent Monday.
Its services include routine check-ups and wellness exams, chronic disease management, preventative screenings, acute illness treatment, women’s health services (excluding obstetrics), on-site labs, senior care, minor injury treatment and physical and occupational therapy.
Cyndy Bryson, practice manager at Riverside, told the Statesman by phone that the medical group has plans to expand in Canyon County.
Riverside said the clinic was spurred by the need for primary care among Boise’s growing population.
“Unfortunately, there have been recent closures of several primary care clinics in the area resulting in a long wait times of up to several months for appointments,” the business said in the news release. “We want to offer a departure from traditional primary care that can leave patients feeling like just another number in a vast and impersonal health system.”
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