When faced with an urgent medical issue, our first call may be to our primary doctor. However, it can be difficult to get a same-day appointment. Or, if it’s after hours or over the weekend, that may not even be an option. The thought of going to a hospital and waiting for hours to be seen for something that may not be an emergency can be daunting. Thankfully, there’s another alternative.
IEP (Independent Emergency Physicians) Urgent Care, which opened in Grosse Pointe in June of 2021, has board-certified emergency medical doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, and other highly-qualified staff to handle a multitude of medical needs.
“We feel we’re a very important niche for our availability,” says Dr. Steven McGraw, a partner with Dr. Daniel LaLonde of the Grosse Pointe facility. “We built access to emergency care one would typically find in emergency departments, but you don't have to be in an emergency department if you're not having a life-threatening complaint. Sometimes, being in the emergency department is both more costly and less efficient.”
Urgent care facilities are popping up nationwide, and IEP, founded in 1997, now boasts eight centers in Michigan. All can treat issues such as ear infections, cold and flu symptoms, lower back and mild abdominal pains. They have a full lab on-site and routinely test for COVID, RSV, strep throat, and many other illnesses. They’re also well-equipped with x-ray machines and can treat most broken bones.
Of course, urgent care centers are not a replacement for emergency departments, especially for people having severe chest pains or other serious symptoms such as blurred vision and dizziness. However, if you were to show up with these complaints, the staff would surely get you where you need to go.
“We don't just send you on your way,” says Dr. LaLonde. “We are happy to make those phone calls and expedite your care to the appropriate center. We can get you door to door very quickly.”
On the other hand, if you come in with mild discomfort in your chest or other vague symptoms and don’t think you need to go to the emergency department, IEP can help make that determination.
“A qualified advanced practice professional is going to not only do a physical exam but perform an EKG, evaluate you, and sort of stratify you in a set of risk components,” says Dr. McGraw. “If you would best be served based on their findings in the emergency department, we will expedite your care to the emergency department nearby.”
In addition to treating illness and injuries, IEP offers non-urgent services such as sports physicals. “We did about 200 free sports physicals for the Grosse Pointe community, for kids entering middle school and high school,” says Susan Durgan, the director of marketing and communication for IEP.
“I'm so proud of having an urgent care in our backyard in Grosse Pointe where I live, and Steve lives,” says Dr. LaLonde. “These are my neighbors and friends going to our Grosse Pointe Urgent Care center, so it's very personal to me that they have a good experience. If they don't, I want to know about it, and we'll certainly fix anything that doesn't in any way satisfy.”
Some people may be hesitant to go to an urgent care center because they’re afraid that most won’t accept their health insurance plans, especially if they’re on Medicaid. “When we set up these urgent care facilities, and because of Dr. McGraw, Dr. LaLonde, and our emergency physician owners, it was really important to make our urgent cares accessible to everyone so that high-quality care would be available to all,” says Susan.
To find out how IEP can meet your medical needs, visit https://www.iepurgentcare.com/.
