An independent urgent care clinic is set to open this summer in Bangor.
Pine Tree Urgent Care plans to open its doors July 1 at 557 Hammond St., where Dirigo Counseling was before it closed last year, according to David Wade, the CEO and clinical director.
The clinic is in the final stages of renovations, with painting and X-ray installation taking place now, Wade said.
He hopes adding another option for medical care in the Queen City will help ease the burden on an overwhelmed healthcare system and make it easier for a wide range of community members to get care efficiently. One of Bangor’s few walk-in clinics closed last year.
“The goal is really you can come in, we’ve got the technology to take care of you, and then we can start treating you immediately and just get you feeling better and make sure that you don’t end up in the emergency room,” Wade said.
Wade has about 10 years of healthcare experience, mostly in emergency medicine and urgent care, and said he’s seen firsthand in the last few years that “the emergency departments are overwhelmed. So we’re really just trying to address that gap.”
Maine’s aging population has led to growing demand for medical services, which emergency departments may not have space to accommodate, he said. For issues that don’t require emergency room care, a more robust landscape of options for office-based healthcare could help ease that burden.
Pine Tree Urgent Care aims to combine the convenience of larger urgent care chains with the familiarity of a locally owned clinic, Wade said. Patients will be able to schedule a time to visit or walk in as needed.
Wade’s team is fully hired with nine employees and plans to grow later on, he said. They’ll work in five exam rooms in the Hammond Street space and also plan to eventually add a sixth.
The clinic will be able to do X-rays, do laceration repairs and wound care in two procedure rooms, run tests like strep throat, COVID, flu, RSV and blood tests in its own lab and dispense some medications on site, which Wade said is becoming more common for urgent care clinics in states that allow it. His team can also refer out to a network of local hospitals and orthopedic clinics.
Although the clinic is not a primary care provider, it can also shoulder some of the weight of a primary care provider shortage in the area by acting as a bridge for people on long waitlists waiting to get into a primary care office, Wade said.
Patients can use all major insurance plans, Medicaid and Medicare at the clinic, according to Wade. It will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“I think people are looking forward to us opening up so that they have another option,” he said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated David Wade’s work experience.