Patients see future of health care at new Martinez clinic

MARTINEZ, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Before the pandemic, you’d schedule an appointment with your doctor or go to an urgent care center, but during the pandemic, things shifted.

Quicker-care clinics are becoming more mainstream. It can save time and can be more convenient. Just like COVID, the health care world is evolving at a rapid rate.

We’ve seen a shift to drive-thru testing and waiting in your car to come into your appointment. One Martinez urgent care is taking health care a step further.

Health care workers say this will probably be the future of how patients are seen.

It’s like a drive-thru meets a motel. You check in, you get treated and you never step foot in a lobby or a waiting room.

“I wanted to go to a place that actually didn’t have to sit in a waiting room. I’m kind of a simple person. I just want to get something done and taken care of, so we drove up and it was a very simple process,” said Chris Landrum.

We followed Physicians Assistant Chris Woods around Perfect Health Urgent Care Clinic to see how it goes when you get to the window.

“We’ll have several different ways to do registration. We have an online registration where you can text a number, and you can do it on your phone, especially if you’re computer savvy, or we can hand you a physical registration form,” said Woods.

Then it’s time to see the doctor.

“We would unlock the door from the window. So otherwise, it would stay locked from the outside, and you would come directly into your room. Then one of our staff would then come in and essentially lock the door back. So now, no one can open that door from the outside,” he said.

Eliminating the stress for people like Landrum who don’t want to spread or contract something new while they’re being treated.

Landrum said: “I hate going to the doctor. So that was my original thing actually because my doctor couldn’t see me for two weeks. Everybody’s scared now. So everybody’s got that little bit. They don’t want to get too close and all that kind of stuff. So it just eases your mind.”

Some of the offices we spoke to said they are planning to move to something similar to this but it will take time.

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