Here at Oxford Urgent Care we take great pride in our facilities and staff, and wanted to shine a spotlight our very own Stephanie Barrett!
Tell me about the office! How many exam rooms do you have? What are your lab capabilities?
We have five exam rooms, and we try to keep one or two open for any truly urgent matters, such as asthma attacks, lacerations, allergic reactions, et cetera. We do have a lab for basic lab work, and we can perform the following tests:
- CBC
- CMP
- BMP
- Lipids
- Urinalysis
- Strep Test
- Flu test
- RSV test
- Urine pregnancy test
So what services do you offer?
We handle basic primary and urgent care needs. Things like basic physicals (for work and school), colds, flu, urinary tract infections, upper respiratory infections, strep throat, ear and sinus infections, stomach viruses, burns, that’s all stuff we see pretty regularly. We can also perform minor procedures, if someone has a bad laceration we can do sutures. We’ll also remove any foreign bodies, nails, splinters, things of that nature.
Injury-related orthopedics is something else we can handle. We do have an on-site x-ray, and can splint or cast broken, strained, or sprained limbs. We send any open fractures to the ER – if the bone has broken the skin. If there is anything in an ear or eye, we can irrigate it and flush out any blockages or foreign bodies.
We also deal with workman’s compensation – typically any work related injuries are within our scope. We also do non-DOT drug screens.
Do you have a favorite funny story you can share?
We are in a college town so it’s very lively. One time there was a group of college students who were having a good time down at Sardis lake (they have ski boats, fishing, basically everyone just hangs out there to have a good time). This group came in one afternoon – there was one patient injured. They all were barefoot, sunburnt, covered in sand, and still wearing their swim trunks. The patient had a catfish barb through his forearm. Now this type of injury can get infected very quickly and they are painful! But all 4 of his friends had to carry in the catfish… that was about 6 inches long.
What types of injuries do you send to the ER?
Any sort of head trauma, chest pain, significant shortness of breath with evidence of hypoxia, abnormal vital signs to rule out pulmonary embolism, open fractures (any exposed bone), and severe things of that nature. If someone needs to see a specialist, such as an ENT or an Orthopaedic doctor, we can refer them out to that doctor. We will avoid sending a patient to the ER if we can.
What’s your best advice for someone experiencing unusual/emergency medical issues?
It’s always best to just come in and see us, as opposed to calling around to see who has the shortest wait time. When a patient checks in, their wait time is prioritized by their complaint, NOT the order of who walked in first. The triage process is there to help assess the patient’s needs. We’re going to prioritize a broken leg over a head cold. As I said earlier, we try to keep an exam room open for those types of things.
And we are always looking out for our patient’s pocketbook, as well as their health. I don’t want anyone leaving my office feeling like they’ve been taken advantage of. The college students do have access to a Student Health Center that’s included in their tuition. However, the wait times tend to be a bit longer. There is also a cash only clinic that’s in town if someone is concerned about the bill and doesn’t have insurance. We always try to work with our patients though.
How do you monitor Patient Satisfaction?
We always get excellent feedback from the family members and the patients themselves. A lot of these students are far away from home, and when their parents know that they are taken care of it makes them very happy. I get calls all the time from parents thanking me! I’ve been involved with this practice for five years, and I can count the number of disgruntled patients in that timeframe on one hand.
Any final thoughts you’d like to share?
We provide an excellent service to our community, and we have very competent employees. Everybody is good at what they do and we love taking care of the patients. You’re in good hands!