A new urgent-care facility held its outside ribbon-cutting on the semi-cloudy afternoon of September 26 for a 3972-square-foot healthcare space up the hill on the southward side of the much-reduced Hudson Valley Mall at 1240 Ulster Avenue. Puffy white clouds above moved serenely through a cerulean sky.
According to a press release, the Kingston Nuvance Health-GoHealth Urgent Care Center — which has already been open and is now attracting a reported average of 40 patients a day, more than the business plan had anticipated — provides access to on-demand care to the people of the Hudson Valley through a new model, “one that addresses many longstanding barriers.”
This photo-friendly occasion featured purple and white inflated balloons and a huge pair of scissors – all the better to cut a wide purple ribbon. The healthcare officials lined up behind the celebratory ribbon were about as numerous as the audience listening on the outskirts of the huge parking lot.
The glass Nuvance entrance door announced three organizational names: Nuvance itself, Nuvance-GoHealth and Sun River Health. Inside the modest vestibule were two more glass doors, one to the left and the other straight ahead. The one straight ahead leads to a reception desk, beyond which were Nuvance facilities for physical rehabilitation and other activities.
Kingston Sun River Health clinic is a provider of health services for both the insured and uninsured. Its Kingston location is one of the most northernmost of its 43 facilities in New York State. Others in the area include Hudson, New Paltz, Walden and Poughkeepsie.
“We build strong and innovative partnerships with hospitals and medical centers to meet the unique needs of our communities,” Sun River’s website explains. Among others, Sun River partners with other of the seven Nuvance hospitals in the Hudson Valley and western Connecticut (Sharon Hospital and the Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie). No affiliation appears on its website for this Town of Ulster location,
The corridor leading from the vestibule past the signless glass door on the left passes a conference room, takes a turn, and arrives at a receptionist window and the small waiting room for the Nuvance Health-Go Health Urgent Care Center. A sign-in tablet offers a choice between “I am a walk-in” and “I signed in on-line.”
Through a door into the facility are numerous spanking-new rooms where patients are seen and medical devices stand at the ready. The facility is open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
A single physician and support staff currently handle the load at the urgent-care center, but director of operations Kreshnik Jusufi provided assurances that a second doctor will be added as soon as demand justifies it.
A Nuvance Health-Go Health center also opened this past week on Route 9W in Wappingers Falls. The ribbons have now been cut on the two new urgent-care facilities.
Cutting ribbons is the easy part. Operating a new location isn’t as easy.
Who’s providing the money?
Based in Atlanta, GoHealth Urgent Care a few months ago boasted of more than 225 urgent-care centers in the nation. That number continues to increase at a rapid rate. The latest count is 250, the company says.
In an age of marketing scams, some by foreign-accented voices routing gullible seniors to poor healthcare choices, the company performs very well, Nuvance executives said. GoHealth has urgent-care centers in 14 states. It operates 59 facilities in the New York City area — plus the two just opened in partnership with Nuvance last week. Counting the 28 additional centers in western Connecticut, about 38 percent of GoHealth centers are in the New York City surrounds.
Most of GoHealth’s New York centers are partnerships with Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider, with 83,000 employees and 850 outpatient locations in the greater New York City area and other places.
Nuvance-GoHealth executives at the ribbon-cutting said that as many as 15 Nuvance-GoHealth urgent-care centers were planned.
Expanding a national business rapidly means spending on getting locations off the ground. Cash flow doesn’t support expenditures. That’s when a deep-pocketed investor comes in handy.
GoHealth Urgent Care is a d/b/a of Access Clinical Partners, LLC, a company in the TPG Growth portfolio. TPG Growth, headquartered in San Francisco, is the middle market and growth equity investment platform of TPG, whose portfolio includes about 100 companies. TPG reported $137.1 billion in assets under management as of March 31 of this year,
Launched in 2007, TPG Growth in 2007 is invested mostly in earlier-stage companies. It has an extensive and diversified portfolio in healthcare, including GoHealth Urgent Care. The parent company attracts billions of additional dollars when it starts new funding rounds.
TPG CEO Jon Winkelried recently indicated TPG management was being cautious in the present uncertain economic environment. “Given the long-dated nature of our capital, we will be very targeted and deliberate around monetizing investments during this part of the cycle,” he said.
The test of the marketplace
GoHealth Urgent Care promises “an effortless patient experience, a welcoming culture of care, and seamless integration with market-leading health systems and our communities.”
Folks in the mid-Hudson region now have the opportunity to judge the quality of these services for themselves. And when they do, you can be sure the word will get around very quickly.
Another significant institutional adaptation in the fast-moving marketplace of local healthcare is under way.
Everything may change, but some things change faster than others. The clouds have now shifted, revealing more blue sky above the Hudson Valley Mall. The familiar landscape of the peaks of the Catskills, visible past the carefully marked lines of the parking lot, will not change within the span of human mortality.
“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind,” American 19th-century writer Nathaniel Hawthorne said. Hawthorne’s sentiment is now available in chocolate form at Edible Inspiration for $3.99.
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