March 29, 2024

Quick Care Clinic to occupy Hy-Vee vacancy, construction ongoing

Will include urgent care providers, dietician offices, nursing room

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Construction is underway to fill a vacant space inside the Newton Hy-Vee.

Previously occupied by US Bank before the business withdrew from the office area roughly one year ago, the northwestern section of the grocery store will now be inhabited by Newton Quick Care Clinic.

In partnership with Newton Clinic PC and Mercy — of which Newton’s own Skiff Medical Center serves as a member of the Mercy Health Network — the Quick Care Clinic stationed in the local supermarket at 1501 First Ave. E. will operate in a similar fashion to an urgent care clinic.

For patients who are dealing with very uncomfortable but non-life-threatening problems and illnesses, a Quick Care Clinic could address or ease their discomforts in a timely manner. Stephanie Alexander, public relations and marketing manager for Skiff Medical Center, said the clinic fills the gap between a traditional care provider and the emergency department.

“People cannot necessarily get in to see their providers same day. When you schedule your annual physicals or sports physicals, you schedule those a little ways out,” Alexander said. “When all of a sudden you haven’t scheduled strep throat, you haven’t scheduled a UTI (urinary tract infection), you haven’t scheduled a potential fracture — well, those aren’t necessarily things you need to or want to go to the emergency department for.”

The Quick Care Clinic, she added, will satisfy patients and be a “good streamline between the existing services” at Skiff Medical Center and Newton Clinic PC. As its name suggests, Quick Care Clinic is designed to meet the needs of patients promptly.

“Injuries and illnesses do not follow an ideal time schedule,” Alexander said. “If a person starts feeling bad early Saturday afternoon, then all of a sudden their doctor’s office isn’t open again until Monday morning. So what are their choices? Do you go sit in an emergency department when, again, it’s uncomfortable and you need care but it’s not an emergency? This will help fill that gap.”

The new space will also offer other amenities. Rick Morr, store director of the Newton Hy-Vee, said in addition to the lab rooms and exam rooms for patients, the clinic will also house offices for Hy-Vee dietitians.

“They don’t currently have dietitian offices in the store,” Morr said. “So it would be a more intimate setting for individuals to talk … The mother’s room is also a new feature that we’ll have in there. There will be a TV and chair in there, a diaper changing station. It will be carpeted — they’re really comfortable areas for nursing mothers.”

Morr said the clinic’s construction work began in early August, less than a week after his first official day as the new store director in Newton. Although a completion date has not been set, the project is expected to be ready sometime in mid-fall.

When it does open, Quick Care Clinic will be primarily managed by a full-time nurse practitioner between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and a part-time nurse practitioner noon through 3 p.m. during weekend shifts. Alexander said the concept behind this type of care facility is that “the provider is running the show” by leading lab work and tending to patients from beginning to end.

“You’re not going to get passed off to anybody else,” she said.

According to a Newton Quick Care Clinic brochure, the limited-service clinic the will care for patients 12 months of age or older and help treat common conditions like allergies, cold and flue symptoms, sore throats and sinus infections, pink eye, laryngitis, earaches and ear infections, among others. The Quick Care Clinic also offers ear wax removal, health screenings, Medicaid wellness visits, physicals, wart removals, influenza vaccinations and lab services such as urinalysis, strep tests and pregnancy tests.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com