Rocky Top Fast Pace Clinic to open Jan. 7
Fast Pace Health has pushed back the opening date for its new Rocky Top urgent-care clinic to Jan. 7, a company official confirmed last week.
The company had been saying since early November that the new facility would open Dec. 11.
But staffing and construction issues forced the delay, said Chris Craig, senior director of marketing strategy for Franklin, Tennessee-based Fast Pace Health.
“It’s holiday time, so we’ve had some delays with construction, and trying to get everything lined up,” he said. “But we should be fully staffed and ready to go by Jan. 7.”
The Fast Pace clinic initially will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but eventually will expand to operating 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, and 1-5 p.m. Sundays, Craig said.
Work on construction of the clinic began in mid-summer on the site at 514 N. Main St., across from Glenn’s Pizza.
Plans submitted to the city of Rocky Top showed that the company would be spending $550,000 to build a 3,600-square-foot facility. The project was approved by the city’s Planning Commission during its June meeting, and the building permit was issued shortly thereafter.
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 new building is on a formerly vacant lot 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.
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, opened in late November at 206 Cedar Lane in Knoxville.
The clinics 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.”
The new Rocky Top clinic has its own Facebook page.