Journal photo by Ron Agnir From left, cutting the ribbon in front of the new Oak Lee Drive Valley Health Urgent Care facility in Ranson Monday.Christine Hewett, Community Relations Manager and Case Worker for Sen. Manchin; Chris Strovel, Field Representative for Sen. Capito; Keith D. Pierson, Mayor, Ranson; Jake Meza, Director, Valley Health Urgent Care and Occupational Health Services; Amy Panzarella, President, Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce; Chris Rucker, Vice President, Valley Health; Mark H. Merrill, President and CEO, Valley Health; Gerald Bechamps, MD, East Mountain Health Physicians; Kip Rutherford, Valley Health Board of Trustees; Nadita Subedi, MD, Medical Director, Valley Health Urgent Care-Ranson; Kristy Shannon, Director, Valley Health Urgent Care, Ranson; Stephen Smoot, Eastern Panhandle Director for Rep.Mooney.

RANSON – Jefferson County residents have a new choice for last minute, nonemergency medical care.

Valley Health Urgent Care, part of the Valley Health hospital system in Winchester, Virginia, is opening a 4,800-square-foot walk-in medical care facility tomorrow along Route 9 in Ranson. The center is located in the Fairfax Crossing shopping center near a Home Depot hardware store.

To be open for extended hours seven days a week, the Urgent Care facility is equipped to treat minor illnesses and injuries, such as infections and flu sickness to sprained ankles and cuts that require only a few stitches, said Chris Rucker, president of the Urgent Care division of Valley Health.

Employing as many as 25 people, the center will operate with three physicians and six nurses or nursing assistants on its staff. At least one physician will be on duty when the center is open on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The center has eight exam rooms – including designed and decorated for children patients – and a medical procedures room. It has an X-ray machine, a hearing testing lab and an occupational health examination room.

Jacob Meza, a vice president for Valley Health, said the facility will have an online appointment system that will allow people to schedule same-day medical appointments. About 40 percent of the health care company’s current patients use the online system, he said.

If an unforeseen emergency situation should disrupt the center’s overall patient schedule for the day, the appointment system would alert those patients with a text message to let them know how much their appointment has been delayed, Meza said.

Meza said Valley Health will operate with the goal of allowing patients to see a medical staff member within five minutes of arriving at the center with an appointment. The company wants its patients to complete their medical care within an hour of arriving at the center.

“Valley Health has been serving patients from West Virginia for over 100 years from Winchester Medical Center,” said Mark Merrill, president and CEO of Valley Health during a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the facility, “and since the late 1980s we have operated hospitals in West Virginia along with Urgent Care centers.”

Valley Health runs six not-for-profit hospitals in Virginia and West Virginia, including War Memorial Hospital in Berkeley Springs. About 1,400 employees of Valley Health live in West Virginia, Merrill said.

Physicians with East Mountain Health Physicians Inc., a nonprofit doctors group in Martinsburg, is teaming with Urgent Care to staff the center with its medical personnel.

Valley Health also operates an Urgent Care center in Martinsburg on Administrative Drive. It also operates a Quick Care center in Spring Mills that is designed to treat minor medical illnesses that can be addressed within about 30 minutes without major medical equipment such as labs or X-ray machines.

Jefferson County is also served by Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Ranson, a general medical and surgical hospital with an emergency room and about 25 patient beds.

“For us to have a second health care facility here by two different amenities is very, very important to everyone,” said Ranson Mayor Keith “Duke” Pierson, one of several local officials speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “With the growth of the city, whether commercial or residential, we need to be able to provide service for everyone in our community.”

“I thank Valley Health for taking the opportunity to be part of our community,” he added. “Welcome to the city of Ranson, and I hope this is not the last ribbon cutting we have.”