Our founder, Dr. Robert Howard worked for over 20 years in emergency rooms and constantly saw distressed patients who had to unnecessarily wait in pain because of the deficiencies of most hospital emergency room waiting systems. He recognized the long waits were mostly due to the available medical staff being commandeered for patients who required emergency treatment for life-threatening conditions.  The frustration on both sides resulted in more tenuous Doctor-Patient relationships and lower customer service satisfaction ratings. 

With the help of Dr. Lowe, Dr. Howard’s solution was to open St. Thomas Urgent Care clinics for non-life threatening conditions, fostering good doctor-patient rapports and expertly delivering fast, efficient treatment to non-emergency patients.  The first clinic was opened in 2002 and now there are 50 clinics all over the United States, with more in the pipeline. 

The clinics are very patient-focused which has proved to be very popular with patients and medical staff alike.  Patients get the highest quality of care quickly without having to wait in discomfort.  The residual benefit is that patients can concentrate on the most important objective; getting better.  The medical staff experience fewer customer complaints, which reduces administration, and ensures they can focus on important health care delivery.