Massapequa's New Urgent Care Center

Not every medical issue requires a visit to the emergency
room. If your child has an ear infection, or you are coming down with symptoms of the flu, the last place you would want to be is a busy emergency room.

But with the closing of Brunswick Hospital in Amityville almost seven years ago, many Massapequans have had limited options in urgent care until now. Finally, there is a better option available and new set of doctors in town.

“This is urgent care which means convenient medicine when you
need it. The doctor is waiting for you instead of you waiting to see the
doctor,” said Dr. Larry Kessler, a physician at

“The area needed something and what we have here is 14 hours a day of emergency care. Eighty percent of what goes to the ER gets discharged, which means they are not sick enough to stay in the hospital. Most of the kind of stuff we see here can be taken care of in this office.”

Kessler is a founding physician for ER-DOX—A Cure for the
Common ER—the newest urgent care center in the Southgate Shopping Center in Massapequa Park.

Kessler and his staff of 21 first opened an urgent care center in Amityville in 2005 with the closing of Brunswick Hospital, and expanded to Massapequa Park on January 12. Kessler knew about the issue facing the area, since he was the director of Brunswick Emergency, from 2000 until it closed in 2005.

He says he and his staff have over 40 years of experience in emergency and urgent care. Kessler believes his urgent care center provides the community with excellent emergency care and sometimes will give the correct diagnosis for a patient to get more extensive care at a hospital.   

“People don’t want to go to the ER because they have such a bad experience.  And they don’t need to be there,” he said.  “We do all the point
of care testing, like strep tests, flu tests, sugar tests, pregnancy tests—things that don’t have to be done in the ER.”

“We are designed to treat and release.”

The urgent care center provides help for infants, children, adolescents and adults. The services include treatment for broken bones, strains, sprains, cuts, wounds, bites, boils, coughs strep throat, flu, abdominal pain, DOT physicals, asthma, breathing difficulties, all common injuries and more.  ER-DOX also offers special hours, 9 p.m.-11p.m., for Pediatric Care at the Massapequa Park location to assist in children’s needs.

Kessler said all those in need of urgent care are welcomed and most major insurances are accepted. If a patient is without medical insurance, the office visit starts at $75.