Central Stat Care plans to open a primary and urgent care facility in Baton Rouge, with a target opening date of July 1, to provide medical services when most primary care practitioners’ doors are closed. Central Stat Care, owned by Dr. Bryan Barrett, is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily—even during inclement weather—with the goal of treating people as quickly as possible, says office manager Colby LeBlanc.
“We are expanding to Baton Rouge to reach out to the community there. We are available when most people’s doctors are closed; their hours are not convenient for when people actually get sick” LeBlanc says. ”We see everything under the sun here.”
Barrett and Stat Care’s nurse practitioners will split their time between the provider’s original care center at 11055 Shoe Creek Drive in Central and the new Baton Rouge center at 3907 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. when it opens. LeBlanc says Barrett also plans to open a third Stat Care location as soon as possible, but hasn’t settled on a space yet.
The firm’s expansion from Central to Baton Rouge comes just three months after the closing of Baton Rouge General’s Mid City emergency room. The closing has created more demand for urgent care facilities, but LeBlanc says the timing of Stat Care’s expansion is merely a coincidence.
“We got in the right place in the right moment,” says LeBlanc, who notes that Central Stat Care currently sees more primary care patients than urgent care patients because its older patients often don’t want to drive into Baton Rouge for appointments. “I think most of the time, as far as our younger-aged patients, they come in when they can’t get in with their primary care doctor, and since we’re walk-in, they usually just come here.”
In the four years since opening in Central, Stat Care has seen an uptick in patients each year, especially around the holidays, LeBlanc says. The new Stat Care facility will offer the same treatment services as the Central location; they include x-rays, IVs, prescription refills, suturing and other medical needs. Patients can make appointments or walk-in.
LeBlanc says the company soon will begin an advertising campaign that will include billboards and magazine and radio ads to attract new patients in Baton Rouge.
—Deanna Narveson
