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Immediate MedCare now open in Covington
Jordan Rice and Calvin Stansell.jpg
Jordan Rice, left, and Calvin Stansell in front of Immediate MedCare at 7129 Floyd St. in Covington - photo by Darryl Welch

COVINGTON, Ga. – Since November, Newton County residents and folks from surrounding areas have had another choice for urgent medical care and the owners of Immediate MedCare on Floyd Street in Covington are hoping to grow their business and change the way urgent care is provided.

Along with treating patients for ailments like colds, the flu, earaches, minor cuts, burns and lacerations, sore throat, sprains, vomiting, fractures and many more, Immediate MedCare also offers  a comprehensive variety of pre- and ongoing employment services including drug testing, DOT physicals, new hire physicals, vaccinations, vision testing and lift evaluations. They also offer corporate wellness programs.

Immediate MedCare also features a portable x-ray machine for full chest and extremity x-rays that can be read in a matter of minutes, fully equipped procedure rooms and lab services. An in house pharmacy will open soon.

In addition to urgent care and workers comp services, Immediate MedCare offers medical spa services including tattoo removal, Botox injections and liposuction.

CFO Calvin Stansell said he and CEO Jordan Rice have an extensive history in the urgent care industry. Rice said their current model is different from any they have tried before.

“We’ve been involved in the urgent care business for a long time and each iteration ends up having something different,” he said. “This model is significantly different. At its core, it’s going to be urgent care and occupational med. That is the foundation of what we do. That is our comfort level. That is the engine that drives everything.

“Now, we’ll be introducing what we call super services, where they are services may be part of the urgent care operation, maybe connected to an associate under this roof, but will still be coordinated or referred or both from the urgent care operation. Urgent care is still the mission but these additional services are really going to be longer term, more elective types of services. So that really is significantly different than anything we’ve done before.”

Stansell said Immediate MedCare will be different from any other urgent care center model.

“We’re going to be introducing a model that different than just about anybody else,” he said. “I don’t of anybody that’s offering that kind of model and we certainly haven’t. The marching orders were first and foremost, you’ve got to feel comfortable that you have your urgent care and occ med down because that really is the core. That’s your foundation. We feel really good about the progress that we’ve made since we opened the first part of November. That really is going to lay the foundation for the other things.”

Stansell said Immediate MedCare hopes to open more locations in the area. He said he and Rice want to make sure they’ve got the new model down first.

“When you’re looking at the additional locations, the first thing is you really want is to get into what we call the ‘replication mode.’ Right now, it’s implementation, where you’re looking at this one model and you get all of the things down pat,” he said. "If it’s a new model, there are going to be mistakes. That’s just part of a new business, it’s part of a new model. So we’ve got to feel really comfortable that this latest model is stabilized and we feel very comfortable with the way that it operates. Then we’ll start looking at the replication part where we’re looking at other areas.”

Stansell said he and Rice have wanted to come into Covington for a long time. He said the high number of businesses in the area was a big draw.

“Just to be real blunt about, we really, really like the community, but it’s wall to wall business stuff. And when you’re looking at it from an urgent care standpoint, up in north Georgia, we did very little work comp and here it will be a significant part of what we do,” he said.

Stansell said working with businesses with their work comp will help all aspects of Immediate MedCare grow.

“With that business, that one contact, in essence, you’ve got a potential of touching every employee they have, that employee’s family, the friends, coworkers, everybody they associate with,” he said. “So you’re looking at really a viral expansion and for a startup there’s really nothing more important than that- is making sure that folks know that you’re here.

“And the ratings pretty much confirm that. When they come by to take advantage of the services, they are sold. And in urgent care, you have to do that anyway because you don't have the luxury of it being an ongoing relationship with a physician. It’s episodic. And so you have to prove yourself every single visit or you won’t see then again. You’ve got to provide incredible service and so the more people who know that we’re here and take advantage of the services, the more likely it is that this is going to be a successful operation.”

Rice called the Immediate MedCare model the future of medicine.

“Our tagline is 'The future of medicine is here,’" he said. “This is the future. Mixing telemedicine, Facebook, social media. We answer people on Facebook about basic questions. We don’t do medical stuff, but the whole interaction in telemedicine is going to change everything. And our system is already set up.”

Rice also said that nobody else offers the super services.

“Nobody else offers these super services. I’m talking about the stem cells. Now that we finally got an FDA ruling last year, stem cells, platelet-rich plasma which you’ve heard a lot about with people for knee injections, shock wave therapy for bed sores, other things. Nobody else is doing that. It’s not their forte.”

Stansell said Immediate MedCare wants to be the problem solver for everybody they come in contact with.

“We want to be considered a problem solver for virtually everybody we come in contact with,” he said, “It can either be a shorter term situation with the work comp and the urgent care or it can be a longer-term deal with regenerative medicine and those kinds of packages where it’s very un-urgent care like.”

Rice said Immediate MedCare takes all major insurances. It also accepts PeachCare for children and Medicare.

From its professional staff, that includes several military veterans and its goal of getting you in and out 30 minutes, to its waiting room with subdued lighting and a massage chair and Hulu programmed TVs in its treatment rooms,  Immediate MedCare has a goal to create an affordable one of a kind healthcare experience.

Stansell said, “What drives us is the efficient and extraordinary delivery of healthcare. We are driven by that efficiency.”

For more information about Immediate MedCare, visit http://www.immediate-medcare.com.