Due to increasing demand, Harbor Regional Health is actively seeking a new facility to house its Prompt Care Clinic to accommodate the community’s need for walk-in medical clinic services.

The current clinic, located on the first floor of the Warren Medical Services Building at 1006 North H Street in Aberdeen, opened in June 2020.

Harbor Regional Health is exploring options for a new, larger facility, which will allow the clinic to serve more patients, add personnel, extend hours, and enhance the range of services offered.

According to the Director of Marketing and PR for Harbor Regional Health, Chris Majors, the Prompt Care Clinic is critical to the community.

“It’s vital. We have so many people and such a limited number of any kind of healthcare professionals here in this area, if we can find a space that allows us to recruit more people, then we can help start filling the gaps,” Majors said. “People need help and they need access to healthcare. Having a facility like this really opens up opportunities for people who are at the edges. There’s a huge need.”

Majors said the current Prompt Care Clinic location was never meant to be permanent.

“The space where it is now was always meant to be temporary while we grew the business. It’s another space we adapted to fit the need, especially during the pandemic, it was way too tricky to try to find something else,” Majors said. “We don’t have all the exam rooms we need, all of our providers are really busy. The best option for us is to find a new place where we can expand our footprint so we can bring on more providers and provide more services. It’s more of a walk-in clinic than an urgent care, but depending on what facility we find, we might be able to add more things you would consider for urgent care.”

Since its opening, the Prompt Care Clinic has provided same-day care for non-emergency medical needs for Grays Harbor County residents. This service is an alternative to Emergency Room visits for conditions that require prompt attention but do not necessitate a hospital visit.

“Our goal has always been to provide timely, convenient care close to home,” said Tom Jensen, CEO of Harbor Regional Health, via a press release. “The steady increase in patient visits has shown us how critical this service is, and we are committed to growing with that need.”

According to that press release issued by Harbor Regional Health, “Expanding Prompt Care will help ensure that more people get the care they need when they need it.”

Majors added that Harbor Regional Health is looking for an existing building or space to house the new clinic rather than building a new structure.

“We don’t have concrete plans exactly as to what services might get extended and that sort of thing, we have to see what space becomes available and what we can do with it and then go from there,” Majors said. “Given the cost of land and construction, our ideal situation would be to find something already built just because it’s so expensive to try to actually do anything especially the healthcare specifications, the regulations and all of that are way more intense than just building a regular building so we’re hoping to find something that we could more or less move into with minimal effort.”

With few emergency room options in Grays Harbor County, a walk-in or urgent care clinic can help alleviate pressure on ER facilities coupled with major cost savings for patients.

“Our hope also is to relieve some pressure on the emergency department because so many people do utilize it for things that aren’t an emergency, by alleviating some of the pressure through something like a walk-in clinic and expanding those services helps everyone throughout the system,” Majors said. “We’ve had people come into the emergency room to get refills for medications, that is a really expensive venture.”

The Harbor Regional Health Prompt Care Clinic offers immediate attention for minor injuries, wound infections, or a sudden medical concern, treatment for splints and sprains, minor burns, and more. The Clinic is currently staffed by a doctor of nursing practice, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, a medical assistant and a front office staff member. Its range of services is designed to address a wide variety of non-respiratory medical issues promptly.

Prompt Care Clinic hours

Last walk-in accepted at 1 p.m.

Monday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tuesday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Wednesday: 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Thursday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Friday: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.