OUR VIEW: Care center answers a need in city

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Avera Queen of Peace Health Services, with help from Focus 2020, this summer will open an urgent-care center in Mitchell. Good for Mitchell. Good for the region. And good for Avera and Focus 2020 for working together to fill an obvious void in Mitchell, a void that’s been present since a short-lived, privately operated urgentcare facility closed down eight years ago.

It’s been interesting to see this develop. The last urgent-care center closed in 2003. In 2009, Focus 2020 — a long-range planning group composed of volunteers — drafted its vision for Mitchell and determined that an urgent-care center is needed. Since then, Avera Queen of Peace Health Services has done its own homework, including a telephone survey through the University of South Dakota. The survey showed a positive response to the then-proposed center.

Fast-forward to today. Avera is close to purchasing the land for the 2,800-squarefoot building. Being built off-site, the clinic will have four exam rooms and include a lab and X-ray equipment. Hospital officials told The Daily Republic recently that the center will accommodate five or six patients at a time and up to 20 per day.

Its customer base likely will be those who don’t have a doctor in town or those whose doctor’s office is closed at the time of need — on a weekend, for instance.

When the clinic opens — Aug. 1 is the target date — this region’s residents will have a viable and convenient alternative to an emergency room visit. Although Avera stresses that it will still be best for patients to consult their personal physician first, the urgent-care center will be at the ready when needed.

That’s good customer service.

Suggested by a planning group and made reality by this city’s top health-care provider, the urgent-care center is the result of great teamwork, good research and a hospital responding to the wishes and needs of its customer base.

Tags: opinion, editorial, avera, clinic, mitchell, local, region, updates