New Waltham doctor’s office helps ‘urgent’ need - Waltham, Massachusetts - Wicked Local Waltham
3/13/13 3:42 PM
New Waltham doctor’s office helps ‘urgent’ need
By Eli Sherman
Waltham News Tribune
Posted Mar 06, 2013 @ 02:00 PM
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PHOTOS: Doctors Express in
Waltham
WALTHAM — A few years ago, Dave Adams’ youngest daughter got an ear infection. After bringing her
to a local emergency room, waiting six hours and getting charged $600 for an Amoxicillin prescription,
Adams decided he was going to do something about it.
Dec. 1, 2012, marked the first day of business for Waltham’s newest urgent healthcare provider:
Doctors Express. The national provider’s objective is to offer healthcare patients with an alternative to
the emergency room for any high acuity, non-life-threatening conditions. Adams, the president and
managing director of Doctors Express Waltham, has teamed up with Dr. Gary Blair, who was previously
an instructor at Harvard Medical, to start the alternative healthcare provider.
“Our five physicians have a minimum of 20 years experience working in urban Boston hospitals.
They’re the same physicians you would see if you went to the ER. They’ve closed more lacerations and
wounds than you or I could count,” Adams said. “These are extremely experienced, proficient
physicians and we’re really excited to have them on our team.”
Efficiency is one of the main goals set by the healthcare provider. Doctors Express doesn’t take
scheduled appointments, but patients wait no more than 10 minutes in the reception area and are in
and out of the building in less than an hour on average, according to Adams.
Located in the new Marketplace facility at 1030 Main St., Doctors Express accepts most major
healthcare insurance providers including Medicare, but because its overhead costs are less than most
emergency rooms, it is able to provide for uninsured patients at a lower cost as part of its two-tiered flat
rates.
“In the event that a patient is uninsured, because sadly there are those that are not insured, we have a
very low cash-pay model,” Adams said. “It’s $149 (in the first tier) to be treated here, which includes a
physician visit, any written prescriptions that you might need, any internal labs that you may require,
blood work, rapid tests, strep, urine, pregnancy and any X-rays you might need.”
The second tier costs $239 if a patient needs any additional medical procedures including, but not
limited to, wound closures and laceration treatments. Adams said the idea is to have no “blindsiding”
and “absolute transparency.”
The Waltham office is the seventh Doctors Express to open in Massachusetts. There are about 70
locations open nationwide and according to Adams, roughly 25 new facilities will open up in
Massachusetts in the next five years.
Dr. Sophia Hill, who has been practicing emergency and internal medicine since 1987, grew up in
Belmont and started working with Doctors Express Waltham when it opened.
“It’s good. It’s a little less frantic than the ER and a lot more efficient, straightforward and people are, I
think, appreciative and nice for the most part. It all seems like a good process,” Hill said.
Doctors Express is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, every day of the year. Adams said that they chose Waltham as the
location where they wanted to open because he felt it was a great area and also underserved.
“We love Waltham and we love the community,” Adams said. “With parking six feet from our door designated for our patients, doorto-door times in less than an hour and with the quality physicians we have, you can tell that this is a different kind of healthcare.”
Adams said he is optimistic that once the word gets around that there is an alternative urgent care provider located conveniently on
Main Street, business will grow. In addition, with key Affordable Care Act measures going into effect at the start of 2014, there will be
an increased amount of individuals with healthcare insurance.
“There are 32 million Americans who will be insured and we, as a nation, are not going to have the primary care physicians required
to treat chronic conditions for those 32 million people, which leads some to believe that ERs will become more overwhelmed than
they already are,” Adams said. “So we will be able to help alleviate those burdens.”
Comments (2)
FostAm2056
7 days ago
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New Waltham doctor’s office helps ‘urgent’ need - Waltham, Massachusetts - Wicked Local Waltham
3/13/13 3:42 PM
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Great. How many Waltham illegal aliens are going to get free care there while the rest of us pay through the nose?
outofwaltham
6 days ago
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Fost, read the story. There is a fee for uninsured folks.
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