Second urgent care opens tomorrow

Maricopa residents have a new option for same-day medical care.

NextCare will see its first patients tomorrow morning at its new clinic next to Thai Chili 2 Go on North John Wayne Parkway.

Clinic Manager Diana Sharp said her team spent the last few weeks preparing. She’s fired up for opening day.

“I’m really excited because we now have an urgent care in Maricopa that can be affordable,” Sharp said. “No one has to drive to Chandler or Casa Grande for care anymore.”

NextCare is the second stand-alone urgent care facility in Maricopa. Dignity Health Urgent Care, located about a half-mile north on John Wayne Parkway opened to much fanfare in 2013.

Sharp said price point separates the two clinics.

“Other clinics can charge hospital rates, so the co-pays are different,” she said. “You have to pay upfront or you’ll get this huge, giant bill.”

NextCare instead offers discounts for uninsured patients or those with high deductibles.

With low costs and high demand, Sharp anticipates the facility will do well.

“In the three weeks we’ve been setting up, we’ve had potential patients asking when we are opening or if we could do a quick sports physical,” she said. “So, that’s promising.”

The clinic will offer services like physicals, vaccinations, basic lab tests, in-clinic x-rays and STD checks. In the coming months, it plans to add eye exams and breath alcohol testing.

The most common reason patients arrive at urgent care clinics?

“Colds,” Sharp said, “and congestion after any kind of storm. People will come in with drainage, cough, runny noses, fevers, kicked up allergies — the basics.”

NextCare hired four full-time employees and two part-timers. Sharp said the clinic is still searching for a full-time x-ray technician to work on-site and may look to hiring additional staff in the coming months.

“From what I’ve been reading online, I think the residents of Maricopa are excited that it’s coming,” Sharp said.