Avera St. Luke’s to Open FastCare Clinic at Shopko

Avera St. Luke's is teaming up with Shopko to open Avera St. Luke’s FastCare Clinic, South Dakota’s premiere FastCare clinic, which will be located inside the Aberdeen Shopko store in northwest Aberdeen. Avera St. Luke’s FastCare will be operated as a service of Avera St. Luke’s in partnership with Aberdeen Family Physicians and will open this summer.

“This new clinic will address a specific need in our community,” said Todd Forkel, vice president of Clinic and Network Operations at Avera St. Luke’s. “It offers convenience and quick care for families with minor health care needs. For people without a family doctor, or during weekends or after hours, this type of service is more efficient and less expensive than using the hospital’s Emergency Department.”

The clinic will have a well-defined and limited scope of clinical services, with evidence-based treatment plans and a system for referring patients to physicians when symptoms exceed the clinic’s scope of services. To ensure continuity of care of our patients, Avera St. Luke’s FastCare will be linked to the Avera electronic medical records system; however, you don’t need to be an Avera patient to use FastCare — just someone who needs quality care in a hurry.

Avera St. Luke’s FastCare differs from a regular trip to the doctor in the following ways:

• The clinic accepts walk-in patients rather than appointments, with an emphasis on short or no waiting periods.
• Services are offered for a flat fee of $49. (This fee can be billed to a patient’s insurance.)
• FastCare is open seven days a week — from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. holidays — every day of the year except Christmas.
• Services are limited to “everyday” health care needs of patients 18 months of age or older, including sore throats, earaches, sinus congestion, flu symptoms, urinary tract infections, and basic laboratory services.
• Patients will be seen by a nurse practitioner or physician assistant who will refer to a primary care physician if necessary. The care will be provided in close partnership with Aberdeen Family Physicians and in accordance with the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association.
• The nurse practitioner or physician assistant may prescribe medication, which patients may fill at ShopKo or another pharmacy of choice.
• Clinic staff will offer to send a report to each patient’s primary care physician following a visit at the Avera FastCare Clinic. 

Mike Bettiga, Shopko chief operating officer and executive vice president of Retail Health, is enthusiastic about the new clinic. “We have received positive feedback on each of our FastCare locations, and I am certain our Aberdeen customers will be just as pleased with the convenience and service.” The FastCare Clinics are a perfect fit for Shopko’s expertise in retail health, including its pharmacies, eye care centers and retail health care products. Bettiga added, “Not only does this concept provide true one-stop shopping for today’s busy families, we believe it increases accessibility to health care at a lower cost.”

Avera St. Luke’s is working with Bellin Health System, who established the FastCare brand of retail health clinics in 2006. Bellin Health System is an integrated health care delivery system based in Green Bay, Wis., that has been serving patients and the community since 1907. Bellin operates five FastCare clinics in the northeast Wisconsin region and has partnered with 12 other health systems to establish another 17 FastCare operations spread throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and now South Dakota.

“FastCare is an excellent way for Avera St. Luke’s to help area residents control their health care costs by keeping minor illnesses out of the emergency department,” said Ken Berndt, director of FastCare Development at Bellin Health. “It also provides 7-day access to the community at a very affordable price.”

“The opportunity to bring FastCare to Aberdeen fits perfectly with Avera St. Luke’s commitment to provide convenient access to quality healthcare in our community,” Forkel said.

For more information, contact Forkel at (605) 622-5890.

About Shopko

Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC is an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc., a leading private investment firm focused on leverage buyouts, equity, debt and other investments in market-leading companies that can benefit from its in-house operating professionals and experience. ShopKo is a $2.2 billion retailer of quality goods and services headquartered in Green Bay , Wis., with stores located in 13 states throughout the Midwest, Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions. Retail formats include 136 ShopKo stores, providing quality name-brand merchandise, great values, pharmacy and optical services in small to mid-sized cities, and six Shopko Express Rx stores, a convenient neighborhood drugstore concept.