Staff at Inner Banks Urgent Care to be reassigned

A popular provider of urgent care to patients in the Washington area is scheduled to close in June, according to information provided to the Washington Daily News.

Officials with Vidant Health have made the decision to close Inner Banks Urgent Care and reassign the practice’s staff to other medical practices affiliated with Vidant Medical Group, according to sources familiar with the decision.
The pending closure of the practice was confirmed late Thursday by Beth Anne Atkins, a Vidant Health public-relations specialist.

“Effective June 2012, health care providers at Inner Banks Urgent Care in Washington will begin seeing patients at other practices throughout the county,” Atkins said in the release. “The providers will no longer see patients at Inner Banks Urgent Care.”

Urgent-care providers will rotate among internal medicine, family medicine and women’s-care practices, Atkins said.

Patients currently seen at the urgent-care facility will be able to schedule appointments with the following practices: Vidant Internal Medicine–Washington, Vidant Women’s Care–Washington, Vidant Family Medicine–Washington and Vidant Family Medicine–Chocowinity, Atkins said.

The practices will expand their hours, as well as offering same-day and walk-in service to accommodate new patients, she said.

“We want this transition to be as easy as possible for the patients,” said Travis Douglass, executive vice president and director of Vidant Medical Group, in a statement released by Atkins. “It is our goal to seamlessly transition our patients to other existing practices in Washington and Beaufort County.”

Inner Banks Urgent Care, located at 608 E. 12th St. in Washington and near the Washington hospital, has provided urgent care for about five years.

The practice was actively promoted recently by the Board of Directors of Beaufort Regional Health System as an efficient and lower-cost alternative to then-Beaufort County Medical Center’s emergency department for patients needing treatment for emergent, but not-life-threatening illnesses or injuries.

Following the closure of Pamlico Urgent Care about two years ago, Inner Banks Urgent Care saw an increase of about 50 percent in new-patient volume, expanded its hours and added an additional provider to take care of the increased patient load, according to news reports at the time.

It is advertised as offering school and sports physicals, treatment of minor gynecological infections, excision of skin lesions, treatment of work-related and sports-related injuries, physicals required by the N.C. Department of Transportation, treatment of sprains and lacerations, treatment of infections and skin rashes and laboratory and X-ray services, among others.

The practice is headed by Dr. Elizabeth Cook of Washington. Cook had worked in the then-Beaufort County Hospital emergency department for 27 years before moving to the urgent-care practice, according to information about the practice on the health system’s website.

Other providers at the practice include Anita Woolard and Janet Cutler, nurse practitioners.

When contacted by the Daily News on Thursday, Cook said she had no comment about the report.

The closure is the latest change in Washington-based medical practices since University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, now Vidant Health, signed an agreement in September 2011 to take over management of the Washington hospital and its affiliated medical practices.

Last week, Vidant Medical Group announced the acquisition of Washington Women’s Care and its merger with Obstetrics and Gynecology of Washington.