Before 2021, there were no Urgent Care & Occupational Health centers located in Portage County. Now there are two Urgent Care centers in the county and the Hometown Urgent Care Center officially hosted its “ribbon-cutting” ceremony last Thursday afternoon in Ravenna.
“As far as Ravenna is concerned and the Chamber’s perspective, it is awesome,” Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ryann Cline told The Weekly Villager on Feb. 13. “Instead of having to go to the emergency room and the hospital and having to wait there for a long time for something that may be a little less major, you can come here and get x-rays if your kid breaks their arm or breaks their leg and get out much more quickly.”
According to Regional Manager Jenna Cisar, the Ravenna location originally opened in 2022 as the WellNow Urgent Care & Occupational Health Center but was rebranded as the Hometown Urgent Care & Occupational Health Center last year.
The two Urgent Care Centers located in Portage County are located in Ravenna and Streetsboro.
“What Hometown wanted to do was expand their base in Northeast Ohio so this center is one of 16 centers in the greater area and Streetsboro is up the street, so I think they wanted to saturate the market with Homtown Ugent Care centers,” Account Executive Scott Franklin said.
WellNow Urgent Care acquired Hometown Urgent Care & Occupational Health in 2020 but recently rebranded the Portage County locations in the name of Hometown. Despite the name change, Cisar said it was a smooth transition. The facility did not shut down when it changed names but had yet to be officially introduced as the Hometown Urgent Care & Occupational Health center until the RACC hosted an informal “ribbon-cutting” ceremony.
According to Cisar, once the rebranding occurred, there were not many significant changes but the subtle ones that were made went a long way.
“I think that is very important that we did not close to the community,” she said. “We are more affordable, we have better pricing, we accept more insurance than we had previously, and we are more community-based. We like to give back to our communities and our churches.”
She added that one of the new initiatives that the Center adopted was handing out vouchers to people in churches who cannot afford health insurance to give them the opportunity to visit the center and receive free treatment.
Cline acknowledged the importance of Hometown Urgent Care’s efforts at reaching the community.
“That is really great,” she said. “Especially for the Ravenna community, you are dealing with a potentially lower-income community, people that do need extra help. That is a huge benefit.”
In addition to being community-driven, Cisar added that the Center’s hours of operations are longer than their competitors. During the week the doors are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on the weekend from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“It is important for after school and after work,” Cisar said. “If your hours are shorter, there is a smaller window for you to come in and be seen so we are open until 7 p.m. The busier we get the more we may expand those hours in the future.”
Cisar said that the Center frequently deals with minor illnesses and injuries, alcohol and drug testing, suturing, stapling, and physicals for preemployment.
“We also focus on the employment communities as well, so we called out occupational health services and we can do injury-care treatment here, physicals, drug-testing for regional businesses as well,” Franklin said.
Compared to a hospital, Cisar added that the Center accepts patients whether they have health insurance or not. The only health insurance that the Center does not process is Humana and out-of-state Medicaid.
“If they need more care than we can provide, we recommend that they go to the emergency room and we can either send them there by squad, or if they are stable enough, they can drive themselves and can call ahead of time and let them know that they are coming.”
In addition to dealing with minor medical issues, Cisar said that the Center also provides free sports physicals for student-athletes over the summer and also provides physicals during the school year at a discounted rate.
Despite only being open for a few years, the Center’s existence has gone a long way to help the community.
“People do not want to go wait at the emergency room and it is more difficult these days to get to a primary care doctor, so we are a good alternative,” Cisar said.