Photo courtesy of Shelby County Chamber.
The new Fast Pace Health urgent care clinic in Chelsea opened May 20.
In 2009, the first Fast Pace Urgent Care clinic opened in Collinwood, Tennessee, a town of less than 1,000 people. Its mission was to provide quality, affordable health care to people in small rural communities.
Fifteen years later, the clinic is now known as Fast Pace Health and offers both urgent and primary care in more than 265 locations throughout Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Chelsea recently became home to one of those clinics, which opened in front of the Publix shopping center on May 20.
Doug DeLoach, the senior regional director for Fast Pace Health, said that the decision to add primary care to its urgent care clinics has been a patient-driven process.
“Patients want to have quick access to primary care,” DeLoach said. “In the past, the availability of primary care services in underserved communities was much smaller than it needed to be.”
He said there are several factors that set Fast Pace apart from traditional walk-in clinics.
“We’re not just about urgent care; we look at the person as a whole,” DeLoach said. “We see people with complexities like hypertension and diabetes as well as comorbidities, and we make sure we go those extra miles to take care of them.”
Although Chelsea has expanded from a rural community to one of the fastest growing cities in the state, DeLoach said the new Fast Pace clinic meets a need not only among the town’s residents but in surrounding communities as well.
“Chelsea is a commuter area,” he said.” You have people coming from Westover and other places, so what we’re doing is opening before people have to be at work and staying open after people get off from work,” he said. “You can also schedule an appointment online and complete the appropriate paperwork ahead of time.”
The Chelsea clinic will offer primary services including dermatology, orthopedic care, physical therapy and behavioral health services.
“We have therapists who can assess people for mental health conditions like anxiety and depression,” DeLoach said. “We want to make sure everyone has access to mental health providers and get the appropriate care.”
The Chelsea location is staffed with two physical therapists, three primary care providers and six clinical staff. For patients who cannot come to the clinic in person, they can use telemedicine for urgent care needs, prescriptions, primary care and behavioral health care.
“Especially since Covid, telemedicine has been a large component of our services,” DeLoach said. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Fast Pace accepts most major insurance as well as Medicare and Medicaid. For people without insurance, Fast-Pace has a Simple Self-Pay Program, where patients can pay a flat fee up front that takes care of all in-house testing and procedures.
“This offers peace of mind for those who don’t have insurance or don’t want to use their insurance,” DeLoach said.
Fast Pace Health now has 11 locations in Alabama, with 15 more opening this year, DeLoach said. By the end of the year, Fast Pace Health will have 300 locations in the Southeast.
“We’re very excited to bring Fast Pace Health to the Chelsea area and to provide quality health care to the people in the area,” DeLoach said.
The new clinic is located at 361 Chelsea Crossroads, Suite A. Hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 205-386-2057 or visit fastpacehealth.com.
