With flu and cold season on the horizon, InterFaith Health Clinic wanted the uninsured and underinsured to have another option for acute care — one that costs only $35.
The clinic, at 315 Gill Ave. in North Knoxville, has expanded its evening Urgent Care Clinic hours by two days. It’s now open 5-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday (although it will be closed this Monday for the Labor Day holiday).
“As fall and winter approach, people are sick more often, and we anticipate this being an important addition that will help working people,” said Debbie Valentine, director of development for InterFaith. “Many times our patient population do not seek out care until they are ill. Our new patient appointments are a long waiting time because we schedule for a full physical. With the urgent care, they can walk in if they are sick and also receive an application to become a patient here if they qualify.”
Valentine said the clinic is not yet at capacity for all four days, but the patient load was great enough that two days would no longer be enough during the busy winter season.
The clinic, which serves the uninsured working poor using a sliding income-based fee scale, opened a twice-weekly, urgent-care program this past May. The clinic, staffed by a nurse practitioner and a medical assistant, is designed to handle acute-care problems for patients who can’t wait the typical two to three weeks for the comprehensive “new patient” appointment necessary to get on InterFaith’s permanent rolls.
Area walk-in clinics can cost more than $100 for a visit, plus add-on costs depending on treatments, said InterFaith Director Melissa Knight — a major expense for someone who makes minimum wage.
The flat fee for a visit to InterFaith’s evening urgent-care clinic is $35. Additional costs are minimal; urinalysis, for example, is $1, a strep test $2. Practice manager Stephanie Dockery said a tetanus shot, at $25, is probably the highest added expense. Since it’s geared to the uninsured, no insurance is filed.
The clinic is set up to see patients with sinus infections, urinary tract infections, vomiting, burns, lacerations and the like, Dockery said.
As with the clinic itself, which opened in 1991, the goal is to keep patients out of more expensive hospital emergency rooms for medical conditions that aren’t true emergencies.
“It has the potential to reduce non-emergency visits to the emergency room — which will save everyone money, as so many of those bills are not paid,” Valentine said.
InterFaith Urgent Care Clinic
What: Evening urgent-care, walk-in or appointments
Where: 315 Gill Ave.
Hours: 5-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday (closed Labor Day)
Cost: $35 flat; no insurance filed
Info: 865-546-7330
Article Courtesy – Knoxville News Sentinel