Emergency Medical Care Now Available in East Haven

Patients walking into East Haven’s new  Urgent Care facility are immediately greeted by an artistic display of faux woodblocks neatly aligned on the vestibule’s right wall.

If the eye-catching arrangement doesn’t quite cure what ails visitors, it certainly is enough to distract them for a moment or two.

The entire facility, in fact, seems designed to put patients at ease, from the inviting waiting room to the amicable staff.

“We see about 20 to 25 patients a day,” said Dr. Chander Devaraj, one of a pair of board-certified staff physicians. The other is Dr. Jodonna Scala. Specialty areas between the two of them include family, occupational and emergency medicine.

“So we are a good team,” said Devaraj.

Located at 317 Foxon Road, the Urgent Care facility opened in May. It is accessible seven days a week: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. to noon Sunday. No appointment is needed.

The facility offers treatment to patients with acute, non-life threatening conditions who need immediate attention. These include ear aches, small lacerations, bug bites, tick removal, strep throat and work-related injuries, to name a few. Urgent Care also offers vaccinations, school and athletic physical exams, blood draw and various diagnostic tests.

The facility was established to address a community need for emergency medical services, said Devaraj.

“We did a survey of residents in 2009. There was overwhelming response. They were very positive, saying, 'Yes, we want that here,' ” he said.

The new facility also has attracted patients from nearby towns such as Branford, North Branford and North Haven, added Practice Manager Debbie Borisjuk. Before the East Haven unit opened, patients with urgent medical conditions would have to go to either New Haven or Guilford for care within the Yale-New Haven Hospital network.

“Yale-New Haven Hospital’s objective is to connect with the community a little bit more,” said Devaraj.

The East Haven facility is strictly walk-in and is not equipped for overnight stays.

“We expect patients to be able to be treated and leave within the hour,” said Head Nurse Heather Corcoran.

Sometimes a patient does require overnight care and/or a case turns out to be more serious than the East Haven unit is equipped to address. In such instances, the patient is referred to the New Haven or Guilford medical facility, transported by ambulance if necessary.

Primary care physicians are always made aware of any treatment a patient undergoes in East Haven, Devaraj said.

“When we treat in Urgent Care, the doctors will treat these injuries and inform their primary care doctors about it,” said Devaraj, adding that the facility accepts most insurances. Follow-up is usually with the primary physician.

A town-based facility such as Urgent Care in East Haven not only aids local patients, it also helps area hospitals by tending to acute needs that otherwise would be addressed in an emergency room, said Devaraj.

By addressing complaints “from little sniffles to ear aches to quite often a lot of lacerations,” he noted, “we hope to fill in that requirement and take off loads from the ER.”