The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System is opening three around-the-clock urgent care centers primarily in areas affected by hospital closures, with the help of nearly $18 million in state grants.

North Shore-LIJ on Monday said it obtained a $8.2 million grant to open a 6,700-square-foot urgent care center in Rego Park, Queens, near the site of St. John’s Hospital, which closed in 2009, and a 5,500-square-foot center in Bethpage, where the system said there’s demand.

The Great Neck-based system earlier announced a $9.4 million state health care grant to open a 24-hour urgent care center at bankrupt St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Manhattan.

That facility will provide outpatient care, including primary care, pediatric care and a wide range of services such as radiology.

As hospitals close and emergency rooms reach capacity, urgent care centers are becoming an important part of the health care landscape.

“Part of it is to try to take some of the pressure off the emergency rooms,” said Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council CEO Kevin Dahill. “We now have fewer emergency rooms.”

But in addition to facilities serving areas where hospitals close, urgent care centers are springing up nationwide as delivering care without an appointment catches on.

“It’s a successful business model, if done properly,” said Dr. Franz Ritucci, president of the American Academy of Urgent Care Medicine, based in Orlando, Fla. “That’s why more are opening.”

The number of urgent care centers reached 8,700 nationwide as of February, according to the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. That’s up about 304 from the prior year and up another 330 from the year before that.

There are nearly twice as many centers as the nation’s 4,600 emergency departments, which are seeing rising demand, according to the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Urgent care centers typically provide services seven days a week on an average of 13 hours daily with no appointments required, according to the National Association of Ambulatory Care.

Nearly all provide care for episodic and acute problems such as minor cuts, fractures, bumps, sore throats, ear infections and other conditions. Having elaborate X-rays and labs on site allows for efficient care, Ritucci said.

Roughly half of the centers are owned by physicians, a quarter are owned by hospitals, nearly 20 percent are owned by corporations and about 5 percent are owned by joint ventures between doctors and hospitals. Some sprang up nationwide under the brands of MedStop, Urgent Care and ProCare.

“Hospitals do anything they can to control medical care in their domain,” Ritucci said. “It is growing. Hospitals are trying to get into the market. The moment they see physicians do this on their own, they look to that business model.”

Dahill said physicians usually open centers in more affluent communities, since “whoever’s running them is trying to attract private-paying patients.”

But the state is funding North Shore-LIJ to open centers in areas with poorer residents and a greater reliance on Medicaid.

“They’re providing subsidies because there’s been a demonstrated need,” Dahill said. “Emergency rooms have closed. The state government has concluded that at a minimum there should be an outpost available to that local community.”

North Shore-LIJ’s centers also could provide additional business for the hospital, acting as what Ritucci called a stream feeding the larger river of the provider.

“These will serve as outposts,” Dahill said. “They’ll be able to triage patients. If they have to move them to the proper setting, they’re equipped to do that.”

But he said a profusion of urgent care centers nationwide can bring problems, if seriously ill patients arrive needing quick access to emergency rooms.

“They only work when they’re connected to health care systems,” Dahill said. “Sometimes patients show up at them and they’re a lot sicker than they think they are. They have to be transferred. If the centers were freestanding, it would be a lot more difficult and cumbersome.”

North Shore-LIJ’s urgent care centers will be equipped to handle less severe illnesses and will transfer to other facilities if needed, said North Shore-LIJ spokesman Terry Lynam. Ambulances will be stationed at the St. Vincent’s center, which is expected to treat 25,000 people annually.

“If people need a higher level of care, they could be transferred to nearby hospitals,” Lynam said.

This article originally appeared at http://libn.com/blog/2010/07/22/north-shore-lij-gets-urgent-care-grants/.