Photos from Newton-Wellesley Hospital website
I don't know who came up with the brilliant idea but, after my first experience with urgent care last week, I'm awarding them an Endless Knot*. Terrific concept and in this case well executed.
The situation: suspected norovirus strikes family-wide, felling four adults in less than 24 hours. Unknown cause but current suspect is Colonel Mustard in the library with the cupcake, i.e. it's possible someone with the virus had touched something in the food area where three of us indulged in small sweets. But it also could have been the friend who stopped by or the business advisor with whom we met that day or the box of arugula...you get the point. No way to know.
Regardless, it was so bad for one of us that we called the doctor's office, where we were advised to go to "urgent care." I'd never heard of such a thing.
"You mean the ER?"
No, not the ER at all, which, as we all know, only really functions in emergency mode for real emergencies and, in situations like ours, unpleasant and miserable for the sufferers but unlikely to be truly life-threatening, would have meant a rather prolonged agony.
Off to the closest urgent care, in this case, Newton-Wellesley Hospital Urgent Care, located neither in Newton nor Wellesley nor at the hospital but about five minutes from my house in Waltham, Mass. Now how to describe the building? Imagine an old, say, shoe factory that's now occupied by a bunch of different shoe stores--one for kids, one for adults, one for people needing prosthetic shoes. My passenger kept saying, "This can't be it," as we followed the directions and drove up to the old Waltham Hospital, since the biggest sign said "Children's Hospital." Another sign, a bit further along the building facade, said "Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center." Then, in smaller letters, between these two parts of the building, I noticed some lettering that said "Newton-Wellesley Urgent Care." Dropped passenger off, parked car...
Although I thought all I was doing was providing transport, I quickly realized that things were deteriorating, point being that two of us checked in, were immediately treated (IV fluids, medications), very kind staff, and four hours later we were on our way back home, all systems stable, fevers in the tolerable range and such.
Astonished at the efficiency, I asked the attending physician, Dr. Barry Ehrlich, about how this place had come to be (it opened the day after Waltham Hospital was shuttered in 2003), remarking on how excellent the service was. I have to hand it to Dr. Ehrlich for honesty. He said that we were really lucky, that often the wait is an hour or more, and that we'd hit it just right. I'm glad and if the place is typically understaffed, then I'll have to take back half an Endless Knot.
Regardless, urgent care centers are a great idea...and helped put our family back on the road to health, uh, urgently.
*Endless Knot--new feature on the blog whereby things that are really great and deserving of awards get one.
