For Dr. Michael Kennedy, a Herricks High School graduate who grew up in Searingtown, his recent opening of the Precision Urgent Care medical treatment center in Mineola last month with two other doctors was a return to familiar place.
“It’s sort of like coming home for me,” he said.
Kennedy said the treatment center at 210 Old Country Road, which opened last month, is intended to handle non-life threatening medical problems, such as sprained or broken limbs, sore throats, headaches, stomach pains, a and cuts or burns.
“This area has no other urgent care. There are a lot of people here,” he said.
Kennedy said the center’s proximity to Winthrop-University Hospital is another reason he and his two partners, doctors James Milano and Dinesh Verma, chose the location. Milano and Verma both specialize in emergency medicine. Kennedy, who is also medical director for the Suffolk County Medical Department, specializes in sports medicine.
The center can also conduct concussion or cardiac evaluations, but Kennedy said someone with acute chest pain should go to a hospital emergency room.
“Basically this center is for urgent care,” Kennedy said. “You don’t want to be in an E.R. waiting for six hours because you rolled your ankle. People can be treated more humanely in a facility like this.
He said that urgent care centers typically charge patients co-pays of $30 to $75 for treatment – much less than a hospital emergency room would charge.
Precision Urgent Care is being staffed initially by one medical doctor, a medical assistant and a receptionist, and is considering adding a physicians assistant to its staff. The center has seven treatment rooms, and is equipped with a laboratory, X-ray machine, an echocardiogram machine and oxygen and defibrillators – “just in case something crazy happens,” Kennedy said. The center will also be able to give patients tetanus and flu shots.
“It’s kind of like a mini-E,R.,” he said.
Milano, who unsuccessfully ran against then Congressman Gary Ackerman in 2010, currently works out of St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn.
Kennedy also maintains an urgent care office in Huntington. Kennedy said he has 20 years of experience in emergency medical care and, collectively, he and his colleagues have 40 years of emergency room experience.
If a patient comes to Precision Urgent Care with a life-threatening medical emergency, Kennedy said, the doctor on duty would immediately refer the patient to Winthrop Hospital. He said the treatment center is currently seeking to establish a “strategic alliance” with Winthrop as well as local physicians in private practice.
“When you’re in medicine, it’s good to have a synergistic approach,” Kennedy said.
The hours of the treatment center are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
To build awareness about the center’s presence, Kennedy said the doctors will use e-mail blasts and postcards mailed to residents in the area along with newspaper advertising.
He said the center may give its patients small medical kits branded with the Precision Urgent Care name.
Kennedy said he and his associates are planning to expand their presence and are currently negotiating for other two locations in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
“We want to grow our business from this model,” Kennedy said.
