HIGH POINT – An urgent care franchise company will open a new facility in High Point this fall and is planning to open at least five more in the Triad as part of a $1.4 million investment.
The first Doctors Express location in the Triad will open, likely by October, in Oak Hollow Village on Eastchester Drive, said Bob Rose, who with his wife, Nanette, owns Mooresville-based ABT Healthcare Inc. , the local franchise owner for Towson, Md.-based Doctors Express.
The 2,800-square-foot facility will initially employ one full-time lead physician, as well as a medical assistant, X-ray technician and office coordinator, Nanette Rose said. The office also will need another seven or eight part-time employees.
Once the care center starts seeing about 30 patients per day, another doctor and medical assistant likely will be added.
Bob Rose said his company owns the franchise rights to open five more offices in the Triad in the next five years, with Greensboro the next likely target. The locations will be located in retail-driven areas, such as shopping centers, because of the high traffic and visibility.
Each location costs about $220,000 to $240,000 to upfit and open. Rose said they are financing the High Point location with their own money.
The office will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, and one of the appeals of Doctors Express, he said, is that the wait times are about 20 to 25 minutes.
“It will handle the sniffles to just below life-threatening,” Bob Rose said. “We can handle … any type of illness that doesn’t require the ER.”
Nanette Rose said a typical visit will cost about $125, and Doctors Express will accept most insurance plans.
Additionally, Bob Rose said, ABT is the master franchise owner for the territory from Winston-Salem to Wilmington. He said they will recruit other franchise owners to open 34 more Doctors Express offices in that area during the next five to 10 years.
Jeff Nimmer, leasing and brokerage manager for Kotis Properties in Greensboro, brokered the deal for ABT, while Lydia Whitley, sales and leasing associate with CB Richard Ellis in Greensboro, was the leasing agent.
Anthony Cirillo, president of Fast Forward Consulting, a Huntersville firm that specializes in health care marketing, said that while there is plenty of business to go around, one challenge for a facility such as Doctors Express will be competing with hospitals and other medical offices to recruit physicians, which already are in high demand.
Reach Laura Youngs at (336) 370-2913 or lyoungs@bizjournals.com.