- Dobrowolski, Tony. "New Urgent Care Center to Improve Patient Access." - Berkshire Eagle Online, September 15, 2015. Accessed October 04, 2015. http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_28817663/new-urgent-care-center-improve-patient-access.
- What two (or more) quotes capture the message of the article?
- BHS Urgent Care Center will help lower the number of patients who use the emergency department at Berkshire Medical Center.
- "We wanted to try and find an area that was accessible, easy to find, and had a fair amount of parking," Hayden said. "We looked in Allendale, but we didn't find anything, so we gravitated this way."
- What is the main point of the article, and how is it supported?
- This article briefly describes the opening of a new Urgent Care Facility in the city of Pittsfield, MA. This urgent care facility, or UCF, will be open 10 am – 8 pm, seven days a week (including most holidays). This is the second facility of this type to open recently in Pittsfield, with the other being a walk in facility that is open 8-5 on weekdays. Both are owned by the Berkshire Health System.
- The great benefit that these facilities provide is that they can provide health care to relatively minor health issues such as asthma attacks, mild burns or bruises etc. These facilities will help free up the emergency department at the Berkshire Medical Center and in the process, save people a lot of money from ED visits and the long wait that usually occurs in the ED. The new facility is placed in the heart of downtown, a truly ideal location.
- What actors (individuals or organizations) are referred to? (Provide names and short descriptions.)
- Berkshire Health Systems – BHS provides a majority of the health services to people in the area. They run the Berkshire Medical Center, which is the only hospital in the northern part of Berkshire County.
- The Elderly of Pittsfield – The only group besides BHS mentioned in the article are the elderly, which will benefit greatly from the new UCF. The elderly especially are vulnerable to various health incidents that need to be treated quickly and happen more frequently. The new UCF will lower the health costs associated with growing old.
- What kind of causation or responsibility is argued or implied in the article?
- The article doesn’t really imply an causation, but it appears that the people desired an urgent care facility and were able to work with BHS to get one.
- How (if at all) are health disparities or other equity issues addressed in the article or report?
- Besides the elderly vs. not-elderly problem I mentioned earlier, the article doesn’t really address any other health disparities
- What three points, details or references from the article did you follow up on to advance your understanding of the issued and actors described in the article?
- It may seem strange that I would include an article that seemingly has no connection to Albany, but this article actually highlights one of the primary problems with asthma care in Albany, and that is the lack of UCFs. Urgent Care Facilities are a godsend for poorer families with children/parents who have asthma. Asthma attacks can come on quite suddenly and if they do not have the proper medication, the person may be left to go to the emergency department, where they face long waiting times and expensive medical bills.
- So why is it that this smaller city (approximately 48,000 residents) has not one, but two of these facilities in it’s downtown center but Albany doesn’t have any near downtown? I understand that land/buildings can be hard to come by in the downtown of a state capital, but this is something that is desperately needed.
- That being said, there are UCF’s only a few miles to the west of Albany near Guilderland and Colonie, and also across the river in East Greenbush, but they are desperately needed in downtown. If you are a poorer family without access to a car, it may not be possible to make it to any of the available locations surrounding the city.
- It appears that these UCF’s can only be constructed in locations with some sort of money or political power. Or perhaps it is that the citizens of Albany have not expressed their need for an UCF, that they do not have one. Albany Medical Center is a huge health care provider in the area, I’m sure they have the means to construct a small outpost in downtown.