Fast Pace to open Rocky Top clinic Dec. 11
A worker prepares the parking lot for paving at the new Fast Pace urgent-care clinic in Rocky Top on Monday (Nov. 15). The clinic plans to open Dec. 11. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The Franklin, Tennessee-based company began work on the project in mid-summer at 514 N. Main St., across from Glenn’s Pizza.
Plans show that the company is spending $550,000 to build a 3,600-square-foot facility, which was approved by the city’s Planning Commission during its June meeting. The building permit was issued in late June.
City Manager Michael Foster said the developer was listed on the documents as JMB ST Investment Co. LLC, and the contractor as Raven Construction of Knoxville.
The building is up and substantially complete, and a crew was on hand Monday preparing the parking lot for paving.
It’s on a formerly vacant lot across North Main Street from Glenn’s, next door to a motel and Mexican restaurant. That lot, measuring just under an acre, had been vacant since probably the 1990s, Foster said. There was still a building foundation on the lot, but the structure had long been removed. It previously housed a gas station and later a restaurant.
Fast Pace will operate the first medical clinic in Rocky Top in more than three years, since the Covenant Health clinic and physicians’ offices on South Main Street closed.
A new Fast Pace urgent-care clinic opened in Clinton, near the Green Bridge, last year.
“We’re excited to see it come in,” Foster said earlier of the new Rocky Top facility. “They seem to have a good reputation. The Fast Pace in Clinton always seems to stay busy.”
The company is planning to open multiple new clinics in its five-state service area this year, Grant Hart, director of marketing for Fast Pace Health, said in June.
According to its website (fastpacehealth.com), the company now has 151 walk-in clinic locations in Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Indiana. The latest in East Tennessee, prior to the Rocky Top location, will open Nov. 20 at 206 Cedar Lane, Knoxville.
The clinics are open seven days a week, require no appointments, and accept most major health insurance plans, the website notes.
“Fast Pace Health’s ‘patient first’ mentality has guided its mission to provide convenient and compassionate care to the communities it serves,” the website says. “Since 2009, Fast Pace Health has grown from one clinic in Collinwood, TN to clinics throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana and Indiana, with plans for future expansion.”
The website also notes that “Fast Pace Health clinics provide treatments for a wide range of illnesses, injuries, and common conditions and provide a variety of wellness, diagnostic, and screening services. …
“Fast Pace Health offers patients the convenience of short wait times, daily urgent care services, and the ability to be seen by a primary care provider without an appointment.”
Besides accepting insurance, the clinics offer “affordable self-pay prices for uninsured patients,” and “Each Fast Pace Health clinic features multiple exam rooms, on-site lab testing, and X-ray capabilities,” the website explains.
The company says its vision is to “change the delivery of health care in rural areas by integrating excellent patient care, education, accessibility [and] community service in a way that puts the patient’s needs first and improves the health status of our communities.”