Passavant Area Hospital and Memorial Physicians Services have expanded on the west side of its campus to see patients that have possible COVID-like symptoms. The Passavant West Acute Care Clinic can see patients with a number of needs. Memorial Health System’s Manager of Clinical Services Keri Hayes says that Memorial Physician Services wanted to create the clinic where patients could go if they were experiencing COVID-19 symptoms: “Some of those symptoms include fevers, earaches, any allergy symptoms, sore throat, that sort of thing. We wanted a place for those experiencing those symptoms could be seen safely.”
The site isn’t a place that is used to directly test for COVID-19 but has the ability to test for COVID if need be. The COVID test results usually are returned in 3-5 days. The clinic opened up last week. Hayes says they’ve seen a steady stream of patients each day: “It’s been going great. We’ve been seeing about 15-20 patients per day. We are seeing all ages, anywhere from a few months old to older adults. We are just really excited to be able to offer this service to our community here in Jacksonville.”
Hayes says patients should come to the Acute Care Clinic if they have a sharp onset of symptoms similar to COVID-19. The service is for MPS patients only. She says people ideally can get an appointment quickly and they would like to see patients the same day those acute symptoms set in: “We are open 8AM-5PM Monday through Friday, and anyone can just call the MPS Jacksonville Clinic phone number, which is 217-243-0300 to make an appointment.” Appointments are required for the service.
A nurse practitioner and several family wellness nurses and care specialists are manning the clinic to see patients during the hours from Memorial Physician Services. The clinic is located on the west side of the Passavant Hospital campus to the west of the emergency department.