Cheers to good health! A community on Chicago’s South Side is celebrating the opening of the city’s first Black-owned urgent care facility.
Premier Health Urgent Care in Chicago celebrated its grand opening last week, becoming the city’s first Black-owned urgent care facility. (From left to right): pictured above are Dr. Mike McGee; Germaine Henderson, APN; Renita White, PA-C; Jennifer Kirk, AP; Dr. Airron Richardson and Dr. Reuben Rutland. (Image courtesy of the Chicago Crusader)
Premier Health Urgent Care and OCC-Health Center, located near Chicago’s upscale Hyde Park neighborhood, promises quality community care that’s quick, compassionate, convenient and most importantly affordable, The Chicago Crusader reported.
“We’re happy to open an urgent care in Hyde Park because the community needs it,” Dr. Reuben Rutland, a board-certified trauma surgeon and U.S. Navy vet who helped found the facility, told the newspaper. “I see so many urban professionals who either delay, [or] go without care because of time constraints. No one has 8 hours to wait in the emergency department for a minor illness or the flexibility to wait 3 weeks because their primary care doctor is booked solid.”
“We are here to help fill that gap,” he said, noting that the facility isn’t trying to compete with local doctor’s offices or emergency departments.“We are a supplement to them both, to help relieve the stress on those two facilities.”
The center’s other founders include Michael A. McGee, MD, MPH, FACEP, and Airron Richardson, MD, MBA, FACEP, both of whom are board-certified emergency medicine physicians. They were able to launch the facility with the help of Dr. Gregory Primus, a former Chicago Bears player and the first African-American to be trained in orthopedic surgery at the University of Chicago.
The facility and it founders are not only focused on promoting good health, but impacting the local community by preventing youth violence. A portion of its profits are donated to Project Outreach and Prevention (POP), a local organization aimed at curbing youth violence in surrounding communities via resources and educational services to help kids make better choices.
The new facility welcomes patients of all ages and provides urgent care, occupational health, basic wellness and prevention services. Walk-ins are also available for various ailments, from minor cuts, abrasions and contusions, to the flu, sexually transmitted diseases and urinary tract infections.
The center’s multiple exam and procedure rooms allow patients to be seen quickly and in an efficient manner, providing them quality care they can count on, according to the Crusader. Patients are typically treated within an hour, and the facility accepts most major types of insurance, including Medicare, but not Medicaid.
The office, located at 1301 E. 47th Street Building #2 Chicago, Illinois, is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
