Kettering Health plans 3 new walk-in care sites in southern suburbs

Kettering Health Network plans to open three walk-in care sites in the southern Dayton suburbs by the end of this year.

The locations will be:

• Springboro Health Center, 825 N. Main St., Springboro, opening Nov. 11;

• 101 E. Alex Bell Road, Suite 190, Centerville, opening Nov. 18;

• and 1028 Miamisburg-Centerville Rd., Washington Twp., opening Dec. 9.

The sites will be similar to urgent care centers but charge the same amount as a primary care physician visit.

FIRST REPORT: Kettering Health files permit to open new urgent care in former Zoup!

“As an extension of Kettering Physician Network Primary care, patients treated in our On-Demand clinics will experience care coordination between the clinic and their established primary care provider,” George Lewis, president of Kettering Physician Network, said in a statement.

Along with a network of 600 providers, Kettering Health Network operates nine hospitals, 12 emergency departments, and 120 outpatient facilities serving southwest Ohio. The network’s hospitals are Kettering, Grandview, Sycamore, Southview, Greene Memorial, Soin, Fort Hamilton, Troy and Kettering Behavioral Medicine.

MORE: Premier Health opens series of new urgent care centers

Another convenient care venture by Kettering Health was announced a year ago, when the health network announced a business deal with Kroger to make it easier to share patient information between 10 of Kroger’s Little Clinics in the area and Kettering physicians.

This latest announcement also follows a series of urgent cares opening around the Dayton area operated by Premier Health, the other large health system in the area.

Allan Baumgarten, Minnesota-based consultant and author of the Ohio Health Market Review, said previously there are four main reasons hospital systems add urgent cares.

They divert inappropriate ER visits. They extend the health system’s footprint, especially into areas with higher household income and where many households have good group insurance through their employer. They expand the population getting care inside that health system.

And lastly, Baumgarten said they help hospital networks connect with certain populations, such as millennials, who have no loyalty to health systems or clinics and who value convenience and patient experience.

MORE: How convenience is reshaping local health care

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