Urgent Care
This specialty treats acute illnesses and injuries.
Physicians Quality Care, a new walk-in urgent care clinic, is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Most care is be given on a walk-in basis, though the clinic offers appointments for some procedures, such as cosmetic laser treatments and fitness evaluations for its Boomers fitness center.
The clinic accepts most insurance products. It does not accept TennCare.
An interview with Dr. Hoppers:
Physicians Quality Care
2075 Pleasant Plains Extended, The Columns
Jackson, TN 38305
731-984-8400
pqc@physiciansqualitycare.com
physiciansqualitycare.com
Jimmy Hoppers, M.D.
Melanie Hoppers, M.D.
The Physicians Quality Care clinic adds a whole new meaning to a patient’s experience with walk-in, acute care in Jackson.
The clinic, owned by Dr. Jimmy Hoppers and his wife, Dr. Melanie Hoppers, specializes in urgent care, treating any acute, non-life-threatening illness. Besides the usual colds, coughs, infections and minor injuries, the clinic also provides school and sports physicals and other routine examinations. The clinic is working with a growing number of local companies to provide occupational medicine to employees.
Combined, Dr. Jimmy and Dr. Melanie Hoppers, who are both board-certified physicians, have more than 37 years of practicing medicine and 23 years of working in urgent care.
In planning for their clinic, the doctors wanted to make sure that each patient not only had the best medical care they could give, but also a unique experience when getting that care.
“Most clinics are good at treating people as patients,” says Dr. Jimmy Hoppers. “The breakdown occurs in the other 95 percent of the time as people wait for care. Our goal is to make the whole medical experience more friendly.”
When registering at the front desk, the patient gets a beeper, which will vibrate when it is time to go into an examination room. A patient concierge will introduce patients to what the clinic offers and take care of non-medical needs. The lobby/waiting room with its tall glass windows has a 42-inch plasma screen over the fireplace that provides information about the clinic and community events.
A nearby library offers the latest editions of 54 different magazines and comfortable easy chairs for reading. On the other end of the lobby is the children’s playhouse, built like a make-believe ship. Children enter over a gangway. Overhead lights are suspended in drop-down clouds.
A soundproof theater room, with theater-style seating and a 116-inch screen, continuously plays popular movies or tunes in to a big football game or other event. The vending area has snacks for sale and free drinks from the coffee and hot chocolate bar.
For patient convenience, the clinic has an in-house pharmacy, digital x-ray, in-house laboratory, a laser room for cosmetic treatments and a procedure room for casting and sutures. Clinic staff can perform audiometry, drug and alcohol testing, EKGs and pulmonary function tests. Six examination rooms, each with its own television, surround the large nurses’ station in the clinic area.
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| The clinic's health and fitness center has its own phone number and website: 731-984-8554 and fitness@boomersjackson.com |
That’s not all. Patients can become part of Boomers, a medical fitness center housed in a 4,000-square-foot room in the back of the clinic and outfitted with the latest in exercise equipment and a computerized hydro massage table. Cardiac equipment, for example, is iPod compatible and has small video screens.
To become a part of Boomers, each patient will have a physical exam, labwork and other tests to receive an individualized fitness plan. That plan will then be programmed onto a “key;” as a person starts a piece of exercise equipment with the key, the equipment will know who the individual is and how he or she needs to use the equipment.
Boomers is run by two exercise physiologists, Heather Carter and Josh Compton. It has a monthly membership fee and offers extended hours seven days a week.
Also helping to staff Physicians Quality Care are Shirley Collier, director of the clinic’s occupational medicine services, and nurse practitioners Cheryl Marbery, LeAnne Wilhite and Donna Wallace. The
Hoppers are actively recruiting additional physicians.
As a walk-in, urgent care clinic, Physicians Quality Care does not have an appointment system. The clinic plans to provide an online registration system where patients can alert the clinic to their visit, get an approximate wait time and be given priority when they get to the clinic, said Dr. Hoppers.
The very nature of an emergency clinic is that the number of people seeking care will fluctuate, and, at times, patients will have to wait to be seen by a doctor or nurse practitioner.
“Providing excellent medical care is a given,” says Dr. Hoppers. “We also want to focus on the non-medical part of a patient’s visit to provide excellent customer service at a time when a patient can be upset or anxious about a medical problem. From the minute you leave your car to the minute you return to your car, we want to make sure you are treated with respect and have the best total experience possible.”