MORGANTOWN – UPMC has opened 81 urgent care centers across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and celebrated Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting at its Waynesburg, Pa. Site.
Its 23 West Virginia locations are all former MedExpress sites – including the Morgantown UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care at the corner of W.Va. 705 and Pineview Drive.
UPMC also held ribbon-cuttings last week at its Weirton and Charleston urgent cares.
“The UPMC mission is to serve our communities with outstanding patient care, which is why we are pleased to partner with GoHealth,” said Dr. Donald M. Yealy, chief medical officer and chair of emergency medicine at UPMC. “UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care will allow us to serve you even better with convenient, flexible access to high-quality health care when and where you need it.”
UPMC said its new UPMC-GoHealth partnership “creates a digital and physical front door to connect patients to care within the robust network of trusted UPMC physicians and specialists. It also brings more ambulatory services, such as primary care, women’s health, orthopedics and radiology, closer to communities that need them.”
UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care centers provide care for non-life-threatening acute conditions, including flu, fever, earaches, insect bites, sprains, simple fractures, cuts requiring stitches and more for patients ages 6 months and older, UPMC said. The centers will accept most major insurance, including UPMC Health Plan, Highmark, Geisinger, Medicare and Medicaid, and provide self-pay options.
In Pennsylvania, the UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care network incorporates former MedExpress, UPMC Urgent Care and UPMC Express Care locations.
In announcing Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting, UPMC commented regarding its West Virginia presence, “Going forward, we are exploring plans for future services that will serve defined health needs of these communities.”
Its Morgantown UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care is situated between the Vandalia Health Mon Medical Center campus and WVU Medicine’s Ruby Memorial Hospital campus. Given that Vandalia and WVU Medicine are existing statewide healthcare systems, The Dominion Post asked UPMC its thoughts on establishing a West Virginia presence.
John Reasbeck, Vice President of Community & Ambulatory Care, said, “UPMC is committed to serving our communities with outstanding health care and the new UPMC-GoHealth partnership further cements that commitment. … If patients need follow-up or specialty care, our clinicians will provide easy referral to UPMC’s world class system of specialists. We’re also happy to refer patients and provide visit records to any credentialed clinician of their choosing.”
We asked Vandalia and WVU Medicine their thoughts on UPMC expanding into West Virginia.
David Goldberg, president and CEO of Vandalia Health-Northern Region, and executive vice president of Vandalia Health, said, “We welcome UPMC Go-Health to the community. MedExpress has had a longstanding and positive presence in our region, faithfully serving our friends and neighbors. We look forward to continuing a collaborative relationship to ensure patients have timely access to care, including our Vandalia Health specialists, and a choice of providers.”
WVU Medicine confined its comments to the Waynesburg ribbon-cutting, with a spokesperson saying, “Since opening a WVU Medicine Urgent Care location adjacent to our Waynesburg clinic several weeks ago, our providers have been seeing dozens of patients every day. We’re honored to serve the community with this additional service in Greene County.”
MedExpress originated in Morgantown in 2001. Optum, a United Health Group subsidiary, bought MedExpress in 2015. By then, it had expanded to 141 centers in 11 states. The UPMC-GoHealth partnership announced plans to acquire the MedExpress locations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia last October.
The Dominion Post reported in August 2023 that MedExpress was eliminating all of its registered nursing positions at all of its medical centers.
We asked UPMC it it would be employing registered nurses at its UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care centers, and Reasbeck said no.
However he said, “UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care has retained existing staff and is hiring more.”
UPMC operates more than 40 hospitals and 800 outpatient sites in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland, as well as overseas. UPMC Insurance Services covers more than 4 million members.
GoHealth said it partners with health systems to simplify and improve the way patients access high-quality healthcare for non-life-threatening conditions. Its on-demand care platform serves 12 health system partners across 16 states at approximately 400 co-branded neighborhood centers.
Todd Latz, CEO of GoHealth, said, “Today’s health care consumers expect frictionless, high-quality health care that fits their lives – care that is convenient, personal and connected. By combining our on-demand care, operational expertise and experience, both in-center and virtually, with the long tradition of UPMC clinical excellence and deep understanding of the local health care landscape, we will make easy access to high-quality care a reality for many more people.”
