Five Star Urgent Care continues expansion with Camillus office

CAMILLUS — Five Star Urgent Care’s expansion push continues with its latest office addition in the town of Camillus.

On March 28, the provider of walk-in, urgent-care services announced the opening of a location at 3504 W. Genesee St. in the Fairmount area of Camillus.

It’s the second office in the Syracuse area for Five Star. The health-care provider first entered the Syracuse market last May when it opened a new facility on Route 11 in Cicero.

It also operates locations in Ithaca, Big Flats, and Jamestown.

“In looking at the Cicero location, I further looked deeper into Syracuse to see what needs there would be for urgent-care centers and determined that the area should support two more centers, thus coming to Camillus,” says Dr. John Radford, founder and majority owner of Five Star Urgent Care.

Radford has physician partners in the venture, he says, but declined to disclose how much each person owns.

Five Star also has plans to open offices in DeWitt and Corning, according to its website.

Radford is an emergency physician from Buffalo. Through his work in emergency departments, he’s seen an increase over the past five to 10 years in the need for urgent-care facilities, he says.

He was a partner in a large group in Buffalo that owned several urgent-care centers and decided a few years ago “to branch out” on his own.

Radford worked with Tampa, Fla.–based National UC Realty, a realtor that “specializes in finding prime sites that will maximize revenue” for new urgent-care facilities, according to its website.

National UC Realty is a division of Columbus, Ohio–based Zelnik Realty Group, Inc., according to the National UC Realty website.

The company helps medical clinics with site location, examining population demographics and traffic counts, he says.

Five Star leases its space from the DeWitt–based Widewaters Group, Radford says. CBD Construction, part of the Syracuse–based CBD Cos., handled the build out work on the Camillus clinic, he adds.

The cost to open a single clinic ranges from $850,000 to $1 million, depending on the center, Radford says.

To finance the opening in Big Flats, he used a loan from M&T Bank, which had the support of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“Once they saw the center was doing well, they backed us on our other sites,” he says.

A management and billing company in Ellicottville, N.Y. in Erie County serves as the headquarters for Five Star Urgent Care. The billing company sends bills and accepts patient payments. The management company hires staff members, develops new sites, and handles managerial functions for the clinics, Radford says.

Five Star employs a total of 63 people, a majority of whom are full-time workers. The figure includes seven people work at the management and billing company.

 “Like an emergency department … we have folks cross train. If somebody were sick at one location, even from as far away as Jamestown, bring somebody in to work at another location,” he says.

Doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners comprise between 20 percent and 25 percent of Five Star’s employee count. Nurses make up 50 percent of the staff, and the remaining employees include X-ray technologists and front-end staff.

The Camillus office has 10 employees, Radford says. Doctors at Five Star’s Cicero and Ithaca locations also provide service in Camillus, he adds.

Five Star provides medical exams and treats all non-life threatening ailments, including bronchitis, sprains, and fractures. It can also apply stitches to minor open wounds.

Urgent-care clinics provide a “convenience” for patients, Radford says.

“We don’t see ourselves as a substitute for primary-care providers,” he adds.

Patients can seek treatment for stitches or broken bones in an urgent-care center for “a fraction of the cost.”

Five Star accepts most insurance plans and Medicare. For patients without insurance coverage, basic costs begin at $110, it says. 

“If they get procedures … that bill goes from $110 up to $175,” he says.

Five Star Urgent Care operates on a walk-in basis and doesn’t require an appointment.

The Fairmount location operates seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com