Mankato Clinic launches new Urgency Care

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - Mankato Clinic opens a new kind of clinic. Urgency Care is an extension of acute care that provides just enough resources to keep patients out of an emergency room unless they absolutely need to be there.

Think of Mankato Clinic’s newly urgency care as a mash-up of urgent care and emergency care.

“Since COVID, ERs have been a lot busier, there’s longer wait times- so we want to do what we can to help patients here so they don’t have to go to the emergency department,” said Dr. Katie Anderson, Urgency Care Physician at Mankato Clinic.

IV fluids, blood work, CAT scan, X-rays and ultrasounds- urgency care offers more than ever, right at a patient’s bed.

“We have a lot bigger exam rooms- six large exam rooms- that have a stretcher. There’s a big glass door with a curtain, so we can watch patients from the nurses’ station. We have cardiac monitors in several of our rooms now, so we can keep people here in Urgent Care that are sicker that maybe previously would have gone to the emergency department,” said Dr. Anderson.

Mankato Clinic says urgency care is a lower cost of care compared to going to the emergency department but the most important part of urgency care is improving patient care and comfort without filling up emergency rooms for those who need it most.

“We do still send people to the emergency department if they need that higher level of care, but with the long wait times over there. It’s nice for patients to come here instead so they don’t have to wait as long,” said Dr. Anderson.

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