New urgent care office provides another medical choice for Ravenna residents

Lena Esmail had been eyeing Ravenna as a location for an urgent care facility for some time, but it was only recently that it came to fruition.

"We actually really wanted to get to Ravenna two years ago," said Esmail, the chief executive officer and owner of the Youngstown-based QUICKmed Urgent Care. "But COVID hit and we were kind of limited to where we were here in the Youngstown area."

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The new urgent care opened at 402 S. Chestnut St., on the ground floor, on Sept. 5. It is the latest location for the company that Esmail started just four years ago. A ribbon cutting ceremonial is planned for noon Wednesday, with Ravenna city officials and Ravenna Regional Chamber of Commerce representatives expected to attend.

"We knew that Ravenna was an area of need," Esmail said.

Demand for urgent care services is growing locally and nationally.

Esmail said urgent care centers fill a gap between a physicians' offices, which typically require appointments, and hospital emergency rooms, which are intended to provide care in true life-or-death situations, such as heart attacks.

"Over 50% of people who go to the emergency room go because they need access to care, not because they're having an emergency," said Esmail. "Well, urgent care can take care of urgent and non-emergency needs of people that fall ill or have mild or moderate injury."

Others enter Portage County market with urgent care services

University Hospitals operates the UH Kent Health Center Urgent Care on Devon Place off state Route 43 and UH Streetsboro Health Center Urgent Care off state Route 14. Cleveland Clinic Akron General also has an Express Care walk-in clinic location on state Route 43 in Kent.

More:WellNow, a private urgent care center, is being built on former GetGo site in Ravenna

In Ravenna, Akron Children’s Hospital operates a Quick Care on state Route 59, though the location encourages parents to register for appointments online rather than walk in for care. Also in Ravenna, construction began on a WellNow Urgent Care at 951 E. Main St., in front of the Giant Eagle store, earlier this year. According to the Chicago-based company's website, it is scheduled to open Sept. 28.

The number of businesses in the U.S. urgent care industry has grown 7.9% per year on average over the five years from 2017 to 2022, according to IBIS World, an industry research company. According to the Urgent Care Association, an industry trade group, there were more than 9,600 urgent care centers nationwide by the end of 2019.

The growth comes as consumers demand more convenient and affordable access to medical care beyond doctors’ offices and hospitals.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 32.3% of women and 26.0% of men had one or more visits to an urgent care center or retail health clinic in 2019.

Rather than competing with emergency rooms, urgent cares can take the pressure off of ERs and let them do what they're meant to do − save lives, Esmail said.

"Our goal is to keep those people that aren't emergencies out of the emergency room," she said. "That makes the emergency room function more efficiently and gives better access to care for the communities that we serve."

The Ravenna location is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Patients can be seen for non-life-threatening medical treatments on a walk-in basis. Primary care appointments can be made by calling 330-298-5666.

Ravenna staff can assess and diagnose illness, disease, and injuries with its on-site laboratory,EKG, and X-ray services.

"You're able to get an x-ray if you're concerned that you twisted your ankle, might have broken it, you hurt your arm, you hurt your ribs," said Esmail. "And we're also able to do basic procedures. Like if you've cut yourself and need stiches, we're able to do that. We offer IV fluid therapy."

Esmail said the office employs eight people, including local residents, and typically has three or four on duty at a time.

"We have physicians and nurse practitioners that staff the urgent cares, along with certified x-ray technicians, licensed x-ray technicians, licensed or certified medical assistants or registered nurses." she said.

QUICKmed expanding throughout region

Ravenna is the ninth urgent care that QUICKmed has opened. It's other locations include Akron, Warren, Strongsville, Medina, Liberty, Cortland, Columbiana and Austintown.

QUICKmed also offers occupational therapy services, as well as YOUcare Clinics in some schools, including East and Chaney high schools in Youngstown, Trumbull Career and Technical Center in Warren, and Charles F. Brush High School in Lyndhurst. Esmail said these clinics offer pretty much the same services as the urgent cares, except x-rays.

"Everything else is available, whether it's closing a laceration, laceration repair, giving IV fluid therapy, looking in ears, within the throat, doing COVID testing, doing strep testing," she said. "All that becomes available to the school district, not just the students, but the employees."

Esmail, a certified nurse practitioner, earned her her undergraduate degree from Youngstown State University and completed graduate studies at Kent State University. She started QUICKMED in 2018 after seeing a need in Youngstown area.

"The reason why we decided to start opening urgent cares is because the local hospital system here in Youngstown suddenly closed, didn't give the community a lot of warning," she said. "So the other hospital system that was here became overwhelmed and their emergency department became bombarded with people that just need access to quality care for urgent and non-emergencies. So we became the answer for those patients in need in the community."

She said she then became aware of similar needs in other communities for an urgent care close by.

Esmail said that a virtue of QUICKmed is that is more local, not a large chain headquartered far away. She also points out that she is the public face of the company and therefore it is her credibility on the line.

"To me, we have an onus or responsibility and accountability to the community that we serve because people know who we are and we know that they know that we're local, as opposed to a big box chain where you don't know who the owner is. You don't know who who answers to issues going on," said Esmail. "So, I think for me, that speaks volumes and that's why I am very inclined to let people know that I am the owner and I take accountability for the service that we render."

Go to https://quickmedclinic.com for more information about QUICKmed Urgent Care.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: QUICKmed joins growing urgent care market in Portage County