Urgent care to open in former Pahrump Medical Center

Anyone familiar with Pahrump knows of the need for more medical services and soon, the community will have a brand new urgent care option to utilize, with OptimuMedicine set to open its OptimuM Urgent Care in just a few weeks’ time.

To give the public a feel for what the new urgent care operation will look like, officials with OptimuM hosted an open house event on Monday, July 31 and several dozen community leaders and members turned out.

OptimuM Director of Urgent Care Services Stephen Schaefer was on hand to speak with attendees and he introduced the Pahrump Valley Times to two key players in the new location, OptimuM Urgent Care Medical Director James Bindrup and OptimuM Urgent Care Lead APC Carlos Esparza.

“Working in ERs in Las Vegas, these guys just have an incredible amount of experience managing urgent and critical situations,” Schaefer remarked. “Between that and having EMTs and paramedics and certified medical assistants here, it’s a very high level of care.”

Bindrup provided a rundown on the type of situations that can be addressed through urgent care, those that are enough to require medical attention but not so serious as to require a trip to the emergency room.

“Anytime you roll your ankle, you hurt your back, your muscle gets injured, you have headache symptoms or you even ran out of your prescriptions and can’t get to your primary doctor right away, urgent care is a great place for all of those things,” Bindrup reported. “But a lot of the time, people come in thinking something is just off and then it’s our job to help them figure that out.”

Bindrup and Esparza both emphasized that OptimuM Urgent Care will strive to act as a “bridge” for the patients it sees in two main ways. The first is ensuring that if a patient needs more extensive care than can be provided by OptimuM, they be transported safely and easily. The second is shoring up connections between patients and their primary care team.

“One of the things we are going to work hard to do is, interface and collaborate with our patients’ established primary care team, because we are not here to replace their primary care doctors or their specialists. We can do exams and provide the treatments that are needed right then and afterward, we can reach out and talk with the primary doctors, let them know what we did and facilitate getting the patient in to see their doctor for followup,” Esparza added. “That is a lot of what we are looking to do here.”

OptimuM Urgent Care will also have the ability to quickly analyze test results, with its own lab and imaging systems on site.

“Pahrump is a unique place with unique needs,” Bindrup said. “We’re looking forward to being able to meet those needs.”

OptimuM Urgent Care is taking over space at 1501 E. Calvada Blvd., at what was known as the Pahrump Medical Center. This site, include two buildings on 3.8 acres, was sold by Nye County last year for $2.6 million to Silver State Health Services.

“Seeing OptimuMedicine bring an additional urgent care option for the people of Pahrump is the result of good governance,” former Nye County Commissioner Leo Blundo told the Times.

Blundo was the lead proponent for selling the Pahrump Medical Center, with the intention of seeing more health care options locally, and he said he could not have been more pleased.

“The county sold off a facility that will now have a tremendous benefit to the public, operating as an urgent care. I believe OptimuMedicine is committed to our local vision of bringing health care services to the people. They showed this willingness in becoming a licensed ambulance provider for Pahrump and now as an urgent care, ready to act when you need them. As a commissioner, you look to address local issues that have a big impact on our people. Medical services is one of those immediate issues,” Blundo concluded. “I’d like to add a personal thank-you to my former commissioner colleagues, Frank Carbone, Donna Cox, Bruce Jabbour, Debra Strickland and Lorinda Wichman. Without their continued support, much of this would not be possible.”

As it stands today, OptimuM Urgent Care is still in the midst of its remodel but Schaefer said it shouldn’t be long before it can officially open its doors. “Based on delays with construction, we anticipate to be open to the public in the next few weeks. Once a date is finalized, we will reach out with an announcement,” Schaefer said.

As to the open house, Schaefer said he and his team felt it was a great success.

“We were humbled by the outpouring of support from other local businesses and community leaders,” he remarked. “The overwhelming sentiment was that everyone was excited to have another option for medical services for the growing community of Pahrump. As many residents remember, the Pahrump Medical Center provided a majority of the acute, lifesaving care here until 2006 when the hospital opened. OptimuM feels that this building has a lot more to offer the community and aims to become a vital component of health care in Pahrump.”

For more information contact Schaefer at Stephen.Schaefer@OptimuMedicine.com

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com