Center Grove area business and population growth in recent years made it the prime spot to open a new Indiana University Health urgent care center, officials said.
The new center — opening today — is the first southside location for an urgent care center owned and operated by IU Health. The Greenwood location is the first of a series of IU Health urgent care centers opening in central Indiana in the next two to three years, according to a news release from IU Health. Centers in Lawrence and Brownsburg will open this fall. IU Health already has urgent care centers in Muncie, Bloomington, Lafayette, West Lafayette, Plymouth and LaPorte.
For Johnson County, the new center off State Road 135, south of Smith Valley Road, will join fewer than 10 urgent care facilities in the county. Three clinics are operated through retail pharmacies, another is operated by an urgent care company, OrthoIndy and has a walk-in clinic, and others are owned and operated by local hospitals, including Community Health Network, Franciscan St. Francis Health and Johnson Memorial Hospital.
Franklin’s lone urgent care clinic, run by Johnson Memorial Hospital, initially was established as an urgent care facility but now is used for multiple purposes, instead of only walk-in services, spokeswoman Casey DeArmitt said. The space also houses occupational therapy, primary care physicians and outpatient care, which allows residents to have an immediate appointment but also encourages them to find a primary care doctor, DeArmitt said.
When looking for potential spots for their new clinics, IU Health officials looked at multiple central Indiana cities, said Ron Stiver, president of Indiana University Health system clinical services.
Size of the city, access to primary and urgent care, and population growth were key factors in where the new centers would go, Stiver said.
“The sheer growth of (Johnson County) made it a prime market for (IU Health’s) expansion and growth,” Stiver said. “We think that all the factors are laying out for success here.”
Locations for the other future urgent care centers have yet to be announced, but Stiver said he is not ruling out Johnson County for another clinic.
The Greenwood clinic is near other urgent care centers run by local and southside hospitals, pharmacy clinics and a center run by MedExpress, which offers similar facilities nationwide.
Stiver said he isn’t worried about the number of urgent care options in the area.
Officials with IU Health specifically wanted a populated area that had close access to neighboring IU Health facilities, including IU Health Morgan Hospital in Martinsville, and the other offices on the southside, Stiver said. The reach that IU Health has within 5 to 10 miles of the urgent care center is strong, he said.
Residents with sprained ankles, earaches, sore throats or allergies can stop into the urgent care center for immediate relief without an appointment. Flu shots will be given, as well as physicals, the news release said. The center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. No appointments will be necessary.
Stiver said the centers are designed to be open when residents most need assistance, and popular hours include the drives to and from work. After a few months of operation, IU Health may tweak the business hours to better accommodate residents, based on walk-in numbers and comments from patients, he said.
