Courtesy of Shutterstock

You know the drill: Kid's fever spikes - as soon as your urgent care closes. It's one of the great parenting dilemmas of our time - do you head to the ER, knowing that your less-severe illness or injury doesn't justify taking up a spot in the Emergency Room that should be dedicated to someone sicker; try to get an appointment with your primary physician the next morning (Knowing full well that the chances are slim - and you'll be late to work for your effort regardless.) or try to be seen tonight in an urgent care out of town?

Thanks to the new Urgent Care Center now open on the Henry Mayo Campus, you can choose "none of the above." "As a dad, and an ER doc, I know that accidents and illnesses don't happen during the convenient hours of 9 to 5," says the Center's Medical Director Bud Lawrence, MD. The 15-year Santa Clarita resident, whom you may have met during his 13-year tenure at Henry Mayo, put his tech and medical skills to work to develop an urgent care that honors patient desires while streamlining the system to reduce wait times. "A big part of being 'there' for our neighbors is being available after most others close. We're open until 10pm every night to make getting quality care a lot easier for our patients. Plus, thanks to our fully-electronic digital check in, we provide very, very high-quality care that is also expeditious. We want you to go home and rest as soon as you can, not linger in a waiting room feeling worse by the minute," says Dr. Lawrence.

Staffed with favorite family-practice physicians and nurses and equipped with the latest technology, the Urgent Care Center offers full urgent care services including laboratory studies, X-rays, laceration repair, fracture evaluation, as well as management of fevers and other illnesses. "We have state-of-the-art, brand-new equipment, like digital X-rays, to provide the best possible images which can be transmitted for immediate interpretation by our local radiologists," Dr. Lawrence explains.

Patients do not need an appointment to be seen and can check in with a fully-electronic triage system where they input their information into an iPad. They will then be evaluated by a nurse to start treatment. "Our goal is to provide the highest quality of care to patients in the SCV because our community deserves nothing less," shares Dr. Lawrence.

Other stress-relieving news: "Beyond the scope of the clinic, we have an excellent relationship with Henry Mayo's Emergency Department and can quickly facilitate a transfer of care if necessary. In addition, electronic records at the Urgent Care Center can integrate with the hospital's current system, allowing the primary-care physician to easily understand and follow the results and treatment plan from the urgent care visit," says Dr. Lawrence.
Henry Mayo Urgent Care Center 200-2500