Emergency doctors open local facility

Henderson Road facility handles most things emergency rooms cover, from setting and casting broken bones to stitching lacerations to analyzing blood samples.

By: Joseph Harvie
   A strip mall on Henderson Road is home to more than a convenience store and a soon-to-open dry cleaners. It’s also home to an emergency room medical center, Brunswick Urgent Care.
   The facility can handle most things emergency rooms cover, from setting and casting broken bones to stitching lacerations to analyzing blood samples, said Min Cha, a doctor at the facility.
   Dr. Cha said he and the two other doctors who work at the facility, Au Phan and Jamal Hussain, are certified in emergency medicine by the American Board of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Cha said.
   "We all work in the emergency room in St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick," he said.
   Dr. Cha said he has 12 years experience in emergency medicine and Dr. Hussain and Dr. Phan have been working for two years in emergency medicine.
   Dr. Cha said he and his co-workers opened the facility in August to give community members in need of immediate medical attention a place to go without having to wait in emergency rooms. He also said that patients do not need to make appointments to visit the center.
   "You can wait a long time at hospital emergency rooms before you can get help, plus the closest ones are in New Brunswick," Dr. Cha said. "We can do almost anything that an emergency room does and we are right here in the community."
   Brunswick Urgent Care has three examination rooms, an X-ray machine and a lab for blood testing. Dr. Cha said doctors can perform on-site electrocardiograms, urine tests and analysis, pregnancy tests and work on dehydration, among other treatments.
   Dr. Cha said the staff also includes five nurses, three receptionists and an office manager.
   Most insurance companies consider Brunswick Urgent Care to be an in-network facility, Dr. Cha said. He said that most co-payments are a little more than a regular doctor visit and less than most emergency room co-payments.
   "They consider us a unique facility because we have labs here and because we are all board certified in emergency medicine," Dr. Cha said.
   Dr. Cha said the facility has been opened for seven months and the response has been nice.
   "We didn’t advertise much when we opened and we didn’t go out to seek the press," Dr. Cha said. "It just kind of spread word of mouth from people that came in."
   Brunswick Urgent Care is open seven days a week Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information visit the facility’s Web site at www.brunswickurgentcare.net or call (732) 422-4889.