Construction begins on MedWest Urgent Care Center off I-40 in Canton
6/13/2011
CANTON – MedWest Health System has started construction on an urgent care center along Interstate 40, at Exit 31, in Canton. The location will be the new home of the urgent care center currently located on the MedWest-Haywood campus. MedWest serves western Haywood County with an urgent care center on Hazelwood Avenue in west Waynesville, and Jackson County with a new urgent care center in the Walmart Plaza in Sylva, set to be complete in July.
The MedWest Urgent Care Center in Canton will provide space for seven additional treatment rooms, bringing the total number of treatment rooms to 16. Urgent care centers provide care for non-life-threatening injuries and episodic illnesses and serve to offload volume from emergency departments, making wait times shorter for the treatment of such conditions. Patients treated at MedWest Urgent Care Centers can also find assistance in locating a primary care physician for follow-up and future needs, if the patient is not established with a physician.
“The new urgent care center in Canton is just one more way MedWest is providing local access to local care,” said Mike Poore, CEO of MedWest Health System. “With more than 230 world-class physicians on our medical staff and several ongoing construction projects like our urgent care centers and our inpatient hospice unit opening in Clyde this fall, this is a time of great change for our region. We are serving patients with excellent care without the burden of travel,” he said.
The MedWest Urgent Care Center in Canton is scheduled to be open by December and will include two bays for Haywood EMS vehicles, as well as two sleeping rooms and showers for EMS workers. The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina Highway Patrol will also have space in the building.
“For the citizens in eastern Haywood County, it’s going to provide an urgent care facility close at hand and give a hospital presence in Canton. And it’s going in an area that’s a growing business corridor for all of Haywood County. Lastly, the urgent care center coming here has enabled us to get the funding to extend the sewage and water system in an area where more growth and development will take place. We welcome it with wide open arms,” said Pat Smathers, mayor of Canton.
In addition to the three urgent care centers, MedWest operates three emergency rooms throughout the region, at MedWest-Haywood, MedWest-Harris and MedWest Swain.
MedWest-Harris, MedWest-Haywood and MedWest-Swain provide healthcare for the people of Western North Carolina. MedWest is locally governed by a 14-member board and is affiliated with Carolinas HealthCare System.