SARASOTA
Dr. Eric Buete and businessman Richard Kimsey believe they have found a winning formula for providing urgent health care at a fraction of emergency room costs.
And they are eager to share it with others -- especially investors interested in the unique concept of franchising urgent care facilities.
Doctors Express is the fourth largest urgent care system in the United States and the country’s only urgent care franchise system. The duo opened a Doctors Express clinic on South Tamiami Trail in January and are planning more for their master franchise -- a 16-county area of west Florida from Citrus County to Collier County and east to Polk County. They hope to see 50 to 100 clinics within the next five years.
Kimsey is the chief executive officer of Lavender Health Care of Florida, a limited partnership he founded to develop the franchise area. Buete is the lead physician and chief medical officer of the partnership.
The Sarasota clinic has already served about 1,000 patients who are turning to the facility for acute injuries and non-life threatening illnesses.
Colds, allergic reactions, sinus infections, broken bones and sports injuries are all things that should not be treated in a high-cost emergency room, Kimsey said.
“We need to educate people because most will say, go to the emergency room,” he said. “But unless it is life threatening, you shouldn’t be there.
Treatment for a strep throat will cost around $500 to $600 in a hospital emergency room, he estimated. At the clinic, that price is around $120.
Peter Ross, chief executive officer and cofounder of Doctors Express who moved to Lakewood Ranch in August, said creating a franchise model for this type of health care system makes sense.
With health care costs continuing their upward spiral, the Doctors Express model of standardizing business operations and buying services in bulk helps drive down costs, he said.
The cost for malpractice insurance, equipment, furnishings, billing and collections are all lower because prices have been negotiated for all franchise owners.
“They’ve been negotiated at a national rate,” Kimsey said. “I can buy brand new equipment with warranties for the same price I could get used equipment without warranties online.”
With a lab and digital X-ray equipment on site, the clinic can handle drug screenings and blood workups. Limited prescriptions also can be filled. All health records are electronic and can be submitted to other health providers through a virtual private network, Buete said.
The clinic, open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, always has a medical doctor on duty with experience in urgent care and family medicine.
The cost of each clinic is $750,000 to $1 million -- that includes the franchise fee -- and Kimsey is hoping to find investors who believe in the concept. One is working on opening a Doctors Express in St. Petersburg within 90 days and is looking at locating a second one in Bradenton.
Lavender Health Care will get paid a percent of the net franchise fee for assisting the startups, Kimsey said.
Ross and a partner opened the first Doctors Express in 2007 in Maryland. The first franchise opened in 2009 in Temple, Texas. There are now 35 Doctors Express clinics in 13 states and Ross projects there will be 60 by the end of the year.
“We want to be the second largest urgent care facility in the U.S. by then,” he said.
“It’s a great system for strong entrepreneurs with good business skills and with strong health care people. They can take care of their patients and not worry about the business side of health care,” Ross said.
Buete, a former independent contractor for a group of urgent care centers in Pinellas County, says that is what he likes about the franchise concept.
“It lets me focus on the clinical part of the practice, especially when more and more pressure is being on doctors to be good business managers,” he said.
The men are hoping the clinic will see 7,000 patients by the end of the year with $900,000 to $1 million in gross revenues.
“This has started out faster than I thought it would,” Kimsey said.
