Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital unveiled a brand new on-campus urgent care center at a grand opening event on Monday, which hospital officials say will help take pressure off the ER and help patients in the community.

“There’s two main issues when people go to urgent care,” said Patrick Moody, the director of marketing and public relations at the hospital. “They want to get in and out quickly, and they want to have a good provider, a good doctor.”

“We feel that we are addressing both of those issues,” Moody said.

The Henry Mayo Urgent Care Center held a soft opening ten days before the grand opening, so the facility could identify any problems ahead of the increase in traffic after the public launch.

“The first day (they) opened the door, there were six patients,” Moody said. “There is (clearly) some kind of demand.”

Dr. Bud Lawrence, a physician at the new facility, said the urgent care center was designed to help both patients with less serious injuries or ailments and hospital staff.

“Our physicians and providers will be there to see the patients, get them in and out quickly, get them all the tests that they need to have,” said Lawrence, “and make sure we are treating their condition completely.”

The urgent care center, Lawrence said, was designed to work hand in hand with the emergency department of the hospital.

“The great thing about our location is that if it seems to be an urgent care condition, but it turns out you’re a little bit too sick for our urgent care…we can make sure you get to the er and get that higher level care,” he said. “It’s right across the parking lot.”

If residents went to the urgent care first, said Moody, they could avoid waiting even longer in the emergency room.

“We have a very busy and crowded emergency department. And some of those patients could actually be treated by urgent care,” he said. “We’re hoping at least in part that this will take pressure off of our emergency department.”

The new facility brings a new website, www.henrymayourgentcare.com , online, which will allow patients to check wait times before going to the urgent care. 

“You can see what our wait times are,” said Lawrence. “You can take a peek and decide if it’s something that you want to come by and have us take a look at.”

However, he believes that the facility will serve a large number of community members every day.

“We’re expecting upwards of 30 to 40 patients a day,” Lawrence said. “I think we’ll hit that (number) pretty quickly. There’s a definite need in our community.”