ImmediCenter Urgent Care
ImmediCenterco-pays are usually
less than half of hospital emergency room co-pays.

ImmediCenters provide examination, treatment, and follow-up care for all non-life-threatening injuries including:

•• Lacerations •• Cuts & Bruises •• Sprains & Strains •• Contusions •• Puncture Wounds •• Allergic Reactions

•• Eye Injuries •• Burns •• Back Disorders •• Bumps & Falls •• Work Related Injuries •• & Check-Ups

ImmediCenter Urgent Care Centers fill a much-needed void between the traditional doctor’s office and the emergency room. Our aim is to quickly treat patients who need immediate care but don't require the level of service provided at an emergency room. Many insurers offer patients lower co-pays if they choose an urgent care center over an emergency room.

ImmediCenters are staffed by physicians as well as other medical professionals. ImmediCenter has three convenient locations. You don’t need an appointment and we have flexible hours including weekends, evenings, and holidays.

According to Dr. Michael Basista, Director of ImmediCenter, "There are several situations in which it is best to go to an emergency room:"

•• Symptoms of a heart attack.
•• Symptoms of a stroke.
•• Uncontrollable bleeding.

With so many hospitals closing, including their ER’s, ImmediCenter makes even more sense than ever. Now that there are fewer hospitals and ER's, ER waiting times have consequently become much longer.

•• ImmediCenter have on-site X-rays, blood tests, EKG, ultrasound, stress tests,
•• emergency equipment, and pain management.

•• "It's the perfect place to go when you can't get into the primary care physician's
•• office."

•• National research shows more than half of people who visit an emergency
•• room should not be there.

•• ImmediCenter provides an alternative, with shorter wait times and at a lower cost.

•• Convenience is a big factor. Patients don't have to wait hours for medical care.

•• Some patients prefer ImmediCenter to a hospital emergency room because the
•• care is more personal.

•• ImmediCenter treats injuries like a hospital emergency room, but ImmediCenter
•• can also act as your primary care physician.

•• Our physicians listen carefully to what you have to say.

•• At ImmediCenter, we truly care for our patients.

•• Our doctors are board certified in Family, Internal, or Emergency Medicine.

•• We treat each patient with caring, individualized attention.

•• We provide the best care at the lowest possible cost.

•• We care for infants, children, adults, and senior citizens.

•• ImmediCentercosts 20%-50% less than local emergency rooms.

•• ImmediCenter has no hidden extra charges.

•• You never need to make an appointment. However, appointments are available for
•• those who want them.

The History of ImmediCenter

ImmediCenter opened on June 4, 1984 across the street from the present Clifton location. It was the brainchild Dr. Stephen LaPoff, Dr. Dan T. Bernheim and me. My two original partners are deceased.

At the time, urgent care was a novel concept. We were the first urgent care center in this part of NJ. Dr. LaPoff was from Clifton and grew up literally around the corner from the original location. We were unsure how well the concept would be accepted by the community, but we grew by leaps and bounds from day one. It was clear that the patients in the area wanted and needed our services.

In those days it was rare for doctors to be concerned with the convenience of the patient. Prior to urgent care centers, the hours and days doctors worked, and the limited available appointments suited the physician’s need and barely considered the patients’ needs or wants.

A lot has changed since then, since urgent care has become more commonplace. Our involvement in hospitals and in the medical community is welcome, and many doctors have tried to affiliate with us in any way possible.

With our rapid and solid success, we opened a second center 2 years later in the neighboring community of Bloomfield.

Years later we took over a failing urgent care center in Totowa and converted it to a successful practice by indoctrinating this facility with the ImmediCenter staff and philosophies. It has also grown steadily under the superb direction of our newest partner, Dr. Scott Coleman.

Our transition from being purely a walk-in center for episodic illnesses and injuries into a comprehensive full-service primary care office was a result of patient demand. We initially opened to serve only as an urgent care center, and sought to refer out the more chronic conditions, like high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels and diabetes to the doctors in the community.

Our patients requested that we take them on as regular patients for these chronic conditions because we were so convenient, we truly cared and listened to our patients, and our fees were similar to what the other doctors in the community were charging. We agreed, and now our patient mix is about 50% urgent care type visits and the rest is ongoing primary care. Who said doctors don’t listen to their patients? We certainly did and still do.

Hospitals soon realized that urgent care medicine was here to stay. These centers did take much activity away from the emergency rooms, and rightfully so.

Hospitals responded with their own creation, which was called Fast Track, which still exists in many hospital emergency rooms. What Fast Track is, is diverting non-emergencies from the ER to a different facility within the hospital. They set up a separate area staffed with a medical team distinct from the ER and handled patients like an urgent care center. It cut down on the patient’s waiting time, but it did not reduce costs at all.

Most urgent care centers consider themselves as primary care offices, so charges and co-pays are more in line with a primary care office than with an expensive emergency room, or Fast Track for that matter. Insurance companies rarely deny payment to an urgent care center for these types of visits. Our fees are typically 20% -50% less than a comparable visit to the emergency room.

Urgent care centers are not all alike. While our facilities offer standard episodic, non-emergency care, we emphasize the primary care aspect of medicine and encourage our patients to think of us also as their family doctor.

Since patients already enjoy our expanded hours and walk-in philosophy, it is only logical to continue to use us as their primary care doctor. All our physicians are family practitioners or general internists. We provide the same care and practice to same standards as the primary care physicians do in our community.

Our fees our commensurate with the primary care fees in the area, which are substantially lower than the emergency room’s. We, of course, do not encourage people to use the emergency room for routine care, but that has been the nature of the ER prior to urgent care’s creation.

ImmediCenter offers some services not commonly seen in other urgent care centers, such as orthopedics, gastroenterology, pain management and cosmetic procedures such as hair removal with intense pulse light, which is safer than laser treatments.

Urgent care centers fill a much-needed void between the traditional doctor’s office and the emergency room. The community continues to endorse their existence and encourages their continuation. These centers are often used as one’s primary care provider.