Five Star Urgent Care expanding to Cicero in May

CICERO — Five Star Urgent Care Medical, a nascent, growing upstate New York emergency medical-service provider, plans to expand to Cicero in May.

This comes only one month after the company added its third location in Ithaca on March 4. Its first two sites are Jamestown and Big Flats.

“We did some research and found that there is a growing population in that area,” Dr. John Radford, M.D., co-owner and founder of the Five Star Urgent Care, founded in January 2012, says about Cicero. “We believe our urgent care could be a valuable service to the community.”

Cicero had a population of 31,632 in 2010, according to the latest U.S. Census data, up 13 percent from 27,982 in 2000.

The Cicero branch of Five Star Urgent Care, located at 8003 Brewerton Rd. (Route 11), will open on May 15. The medical practice will hire 10 employees, including three physicians. Five Star Urgent Care leased the 3,000-square-foot space for a 15-year term. Radford declined to disclose the financial terms of the lease. But, he says the startup costs to open up a new location, including equipping it, total about $500,000.

The Cicero Five Star Urgent Care will be equipped with EKG and X-ray machines, according to Radford. It will also be able to perform minor procedures such as incision, drainage, and splinting on site.

Company background

Five Star Urgent Care provides walk-in access for treatment of acute illnesses and injuries. Its other three offices include a 4,600-square-foot location at 830 County Road #64 in Big Flats, a 3,200-square-foot center at 15 S. Main Street, Jamestown, and a 3,400-square-foot branch at 740 South Meadow St. in Ithaca. It leases all four offices.

Five Star Urgent Care now has about 50 employees, including four physicians, working across its current three locations.

Radford and another partner, whom he declined to name,  co-own the company.

Radford, 42, an M.D. specializing in emergency medicine, graduated from the SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 1997. Before founding Five Star Urgent Care, Radford spent four years working for the Amherst–based health-care-management organization The Exigence Group and seven years for Orchard Park–based emergency medical-service provider FDR Medical Service, P.C.

Radford declined to disclose Five Star Urgent Care’s annual revenue in 2012.

In discussing the possible growth trajectory for the Cicero location, he explains that an urgent-care center typically starts by accepting 5-10 patients per day in the first few months. Radford’s goal is to grow to 40-50 customers a day in the next 18 to two years at the new location.  

The mission

Five Star Urgent Care says it offers affordable urgent care for an array of non-emergent medical needs ranging from diarrhea and allergies to abrasions and broken bones. Every Five Star center is fully equipped to perform electrocardiogram, electrolyte testing, STD testing, intravenous therapy, pregnancy tests, rapid strep, and X-rays.

    The Elmira and Jamestown branches of Five Star Urgent Care both received the Certified Urgent Care Center designation, a certification awarded by the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) to organizations meeting certain facility and medical staff criteria. Five Star is the only certified urgent–care provider in the Great Corning, Elmira, and Jamestown areas, according to Radford.

In addition to walk-in medical services, Five Star offers occupational health-care services. It helps company customers design physical and drug-screen protocols and perform examinations, including blood testing, pulmonary function testing, audiometry, EKG with interpretation, and chest X-rays.

The average waiting time after registration at Five Urgent Care is about 15 minutes, says Radford, and the average treating time is about 40 minutes.

For uninsured patients, the cost for examination and basic treatment is around $110. If advanced procedures such as stitches or X-rays are needed, the cost is around $175, Radford explains. For insured patients, the emergency co-pay ranges from $15 to $50, depending on the insurance company or health plan.

Five Star Urgent Care accepts private insurance from Aetna, ELMCO, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, POMCO, RMSCO, Today’s Options, and United Health Care, among other firms, according to its website. It also accepts Medicare and managed Medicare plans of the private insurers it works with, as well as some managed-care Medicaid plans.

If patients need only a prescription instead of medical services, Radford adds, the company can directly send electronic prescription copies to the patient’s local pharmacy.

Five Star Urgent Care offers flat screen TV and computers in its waiting rooms Radford noted. “We really try to give people a pleasurable experience if they have to wait at all,” Radford said.

Burgeoning industry

Five Star Urgent Care’s rapid expansion reflects the growth of urgent-care centers as an alternative to more expensive hospital emergency rooms.

In a study published on Feb. 27, a group of researchers, led by the department of emergency medicine at Stanford University, found that the median charge for outpatient services in the emergency room reached $1,233. In comparison, most urgent-care centers charge about a few hundred dollars.

As for services, urgent-care centers can meet most non-emergent medical needs, except serious medical conditions or mental illness that requires immediate treatment. Such conditions include heart attack, stroke, poisoning, high fever, and seizure, according to information provided on the website of Five Star Urgent Care. In those conditions, the patients should directly dial 911.

The U.S. has more than 8,700 urgent-care centers, according to the website of UCAOA, and the number is growing by 300 a year. UCAOA estimates that about half of those centers can meet the criteria of a certified urgent-care center. There are now 71 certified urgent-care centers in the New York state. 

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