Legacy GoHealth Urgent Care Doctor Joshua Russell, center, talks with Legacy Salmon Creek President Bryce Helgerson, and Heidi Kayser of GoHealth during the official ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new Salmon Creek Facility Aug. 10.
Salmon Creek is now site to one of the fastest-growing urgent care providers in the country.
Last week, the fourth GoHealth Urgent Care center under partnership with Legacy Health Salmon Creek opened up, offering a level of service between primary physicians and the hospital in a location within the shadow of the parent hospital.
Members of both the GoHealth and Legacy Health networks, along with the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, met at the Highway 99 location Aug. 10 as the new center was officially unveiled. It boasts a system-standard setup of session rooms, including a novel procedure room with a glass wall that could close with the press of a button.
Apart from the slick setup, the access to care was a highlight for most of the officials who spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony held that day. Legacy Salmon Creek President Bryce Helgerson said the hospital sees 85,000 emergency room patients annually, highlighting how having an option for care just south of the hospital could be of benefit.
The Salmon Creek facility is the fourth GoHealth location in Clark County, the northernmost in the region. When asked at the reception by Helgerson, several GoHealth members agreed that the Portland-area locations are some of the busiest GoHealth sites within the network.
Ultimately, Helgerson wanted the new place to be inviting.
“We’re very community-focused, and this is really important to us, to meet people in the community for their healthcare needs,” Helgerson said. “We know the hospital can be a scary place for people. We want this to be a welcoming environment where patients are seen efficiently, with high-quality care.”
One of the doctors at the new location, Joshua Russell, was on hand to talk specifics. He had worked in the emergency department of Legacy Salmon Creek as a physician before joining the GoHealth initiative about a year ago, he said.
Knowing the emergency room makes Russell a good fit for his role as a part of the new center, he explained. During his ER stint, he’d often end up seeing patients better suited at a place more like the one he’s at now.
“Patients that are seeking care on an unscheduled basis will either end up, generally, in urgent care or the emergency department, and patients don’t always pick the right place,” Russell explained.
Understanding capacities of care was something at the forefront of Russell’s mind, having worked in the thick of the emergency department. The fact that Legacy Salmon Creek was not a trauma center nor a place that generally admitted children were a few examples of things your average clinic physician might not immediately be aware of.
The center is part of a partnership between Legacy Health and GoHealth Urgent Care, a provider with systems in San Francisco, New York, Hartford, Conn., and the Portland metropolitan area.
Monika Majchrzak, Northwest market operations manager for GoHealth, said it was one of the most exciting openings for a location she had been a part of, referencing Helgerson’s statements on the sheer demand for service in the area.
One of the benefits of the partnership is having linked-up records, which can help for someone who might need some follow-up to whatever brought them to urgent care.
“The moment they’re seen here, their primary care physician or specialty doctor can see the chart notes of everything,” Majchrzak said.
The center, its connection to the hospital and its location all play into the comprehensive nature of care the partnership, and the hospital, wish to impart on the community, officials say.
“After discharge is not when you’re done with us. We continue to provide service afterwards,” Majchrzak said.
