A new independent, clinician-owned urgent care is set to open in Bangor next year.
Pine Tree Urgent Care, owned by local physician assistant David Wade, is working to move into 557 Hammond St., where longstanding mental health clinic Dirigo Counseling was located before closing its doors in August.
The clinic will aim to offer flexible, accessible medical care seven days a week, according to Wade.
The urgent care center will add another health care option for Bangor area residents amid a provider shortage, as other local walk-in clinics have closed and many people struggle to find primary care providers.
“I really think that people deserve options,” Wade said. “We’re really hoping that opening the urgent care center will be a real stark contrast to the closures around here.”
Wade, who currently practices emergency medicine at Bangor’s St. Joseph Hospital, said he was motivated to open an urgent care center after seeing so many people shift their medical care into emergency departments for lack of better options. Those patients wait longer for care and end up paying more than they would at an urgent care center, he said.
ConvenientMD, a regional urgent care chain, and Concentra Urgent Care on Gilman Road are the only organizations currently offering urgent care in Bangor. Northern Light Health, the largest health care organization in the region, closed its walk-in clinic in September, citing its efforts to achieve stability following years of financial troubles.
Plans to establish Pine Tree Urgent Care have been in the works for about a year, according to Wade. He said he hopes to open the clinic in about six months.
The center will offer a fairly typical urgent care experience, “but more of a local feel,” Wade said.
It will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wade said, with a mix of walk-ins and scheduling. He plans to start out with about nine employees, he added.
Wade expects the clinic would see roughly 20 patients per day, he told Bangor’s planning board Tuesday.
The clinic will accept private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare.
“We want to be able to offer services to everybody,” Wade said.
The building itself, which Pine Tree Urgent Care is currently in the process of purchasing, is 3,000 square feet and will have seven exam rooms, according to Wade. There are nearly 20 parking spots for staff and patients, he said.
His team will offer on-site x-rays and be able to dispense medications directly from the clinic, he said.
Bangor’s planning board approved a minor change to the building’s zoning contract Tuesday which will clear the space for medical use. The City Council will vote on that recommendation later this month.
“I’m excited about this,” Planning Board chair Reese Perkins said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Having kind of a neighborhood area with some medical treatment abilities there, I think is fantastic.”
The clinic will be situated on a busy corridor of Bangor’s Fairmount neighborhood, between Fairmount Self Storage and Galactic Comics and Collectibles.
The building purchase is set to close in late December or early January, Wade said. In the next few months, the building will undergo some renovations, including the building of an x-ray suite, as well as the credentialing process with insurers.
“We’re really excited to become part of the community,” Wade said.