Boston-based Partners HealthCare plans to open up to 12 urgent care clinics in the next three years to cater to patients who need medical care, but don't need to go to an emergency room, according to The Boston Globe.
The 10-hosptial system is opening its first clinic at the end of August and has two more slated to open this fall. Though Partners is late to the urgent care game — Boston-based Steward Health System, Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Burlington, Mass.-based Lahey Health all have already been playing, not to mention other retailers like CVS Health — it is expected to build more locations than most of its competitors, according to the report.
Partners is teaming up with MedSpring Urgent Care, a division of Waltham, Mass.-based Fresenius Medical Care, to launch the clinics, which will go by the name Partners Urgent Care, according to the report. Physicians will staff the clinics, which will offer lab tests, X-rays, vaccinations and physicals.
"We're doing this because, in the long run, this will hopefully improve care and might save some costs," Gregg Meyer, MD, chief clinical officer of Partners, told The Boston Globe. "But we're also doing it because our patients are asking for it."
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