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Located within our Medical Office Building is our Urgent Care Clinic. And while some of the more oft asked questions about the clinic include: "What times are they open?" (Click Here For That Answer!) we wanted to ask some other questions about the kinds of cases most commonly treated by our Clinic Staff, how they work with primary care providers, and what drew them to a career in medicine. We are starting this series with our own Oscar Aguirre. Read on to learn more about Oscar and the many services the Urgent Care provides to our community!

1.) Healthcare can be thought of as seasonal. Summer is here so what are some of the most common ailments we see in Urgent Care?

Allergies are big for people and then the ailments that come with activities., animal bites, insect stings, injuries.

2.) What is unique about Clinical Urgent Care versus Primary Care?

This is acute care medicine in the fact that the disease or injury is of sudden onset. New stuff that has occurred without warning.

3.) Do you get to meet a variety of people in the community working in the Clinic?

Yes all sorts, business people, police, the poor and the rich. Children and the elderly.

4.) What are some of the special and/or unique skills an Urgent Clinic Provider needs to possess to serve their patients?

Evaluating illness that may require surgeries of various types, versus a problems that may be chronic but still causing immediate pain or illness, triage of people who can be seen in our department or may need more critical care such as a cath lab for heart problems versus someone who has aggravation of their gallbladder or heartburn, that presents with chest pain.

5.) The Urgent Care at MHCC is here to help patients in our community who can't get into see their Primary Care Physicians, but do you often get travelers to the area who need assistance?

We see folks having a flare up of their asthma, or have developed a pneumonia and this has caused aggravation of their chronic lung disease. Or they have forgotten or run out of their medication while traveling. The same problems that occur with people that live here happen to the travelers, but they don't have a primary care doctor in Douglas, so they come to see us.

6.) Our Urgent Care serves kind of an in-between. It's not for say life threatening injuries but those that still need to be treated within 24 hours. How can a patient make that call?

I think a patient can look at this question in the manner of: if this is a likely threat to life, in that you will die if not treated or you may lose a part of your body (risk of loss of life or limb) then those should go to the emergency department.

7.) How do you work with patients primary care providers?

We commonly communicate with primary care providers. We usually will walk down the hallway and talk with them for a question or coordination of treatment. It is common for us to communicate with one another and we like the opportunity to work with one another.

8.) When a family visits the Urgent Care it's often not under the best of circumstances. How do you and the staff work to help accommodate and work with patients?

We are mostly caring and empathetic people and we adapt to the needs of the family, people sense this and are encouraged by the sense they have instinctively that we can and we want to help them.

9.) What drew you to work in healthcare?

I wanted to be able to understand the medical issues of my family to be able to help them in their needs, this was my initial impetus. I was a medic in the Army in active duty service out of HS, when I left active service I worked on an ambulance as an EMT, continued to school for my Paramedic license, worked as a Paramedic until I was accepted into the PA program. After graduation I worked in family practice and moonlighted in an emergency room in Denver Colorado, after two years I applied and was accepted into a surgical residency in NY, I trained in general surgery as a PA. After graduation as fortune would have it, I ended up working in Orthopedics where I participated in surgery, hospital and clinic care. After about six year there I worked in gastroenterology for about 3 years then moved onto work a acute care clinic where we saw primarily musculoskeletal injuries, during that time I worked in the emergency department again. Searching for a smaller town that would offer our family the benefits of a small town with good employment lead us to Douglas and MHCC.

10.) If you could give one piece of health advice to the greater community what would it be?

Pay attention to maintaining good health. Don't let your body deteriorate. Exercise regularly, learn to eat healthier, and stop bad habits now, such as smoking, drugs, and overindulgence in drinking. These things will serve us the best in the long run.