When long drives or a few days' wait won't do
Brunswick Urgent Care offers alternative to the hospital emergency room
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Dr. Min Cha, of Brunswick Urgent Care in Kendall Park, performs an X-ray at the facility.

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - If the inevitable accidents and infections that afflict everyone's life could be penciled in like a lunch meeting, the services that Brunswick Urgent Care, Kendall Park, offers wouldn't be needed.

However, this is far from the case, and broken bones, sudden illnesses and deep cuts tend to impose themselves regardless of whether it's a convenient time to be injured. Open since August 2005, Brunswick Urgent Care aims to provide all the services of a hospital emergency room, but without the waits or long drives.

"When you are sick, you've got to drive six miles to Princeton or six miles to New Brunswick. I think that there is a need where people get sick, they need to be seen by doctors who are around instead of driving far down," said Dr. Min Cha, one of three doctors at the facility, all of whom are certified in the practice of emergency medicine.

Adding on to the idea of fast, efficient medical care is the fact that the facility does many things in-house that other clinics outsource, like X-rays, which are taken and processed entirely on-site. The facility also has its own lab, enabling tests to, once again, be processed on-site.

"We don't want to draw blood and then send it to a lab. All these are important to treat the patient, instead of waiting for the results to come back," said Cha.

To further reduce waiting times, Brunswick Urgent Care is open Monday through Sunday. Many people who don't wish to wait for their normal doctor will go to the urgent care facility instead.

"We get a lot of people who say, 'I called my doctor; they can't see me for two days, three days and I need to see someone now,' and that makes sense. If you are sick you don't want to wait two days, three days," said Cha.

While the facility's specialty is emergency care, non-emergency work is also performed. According to Cha, the facility sees a large number of geriatric patients, and it also has a pediatrics room. The doctors see an average of 37 patients a day, a number that has grown since the facility opened.

"I think that the reason we are doing well and people like it is the types of service we provide. We are very oriented toward certain people here at their convenience, off hours when their doctors are not available. When you get sick, and need care right away, this type of facility is equipped for exactly that, not waiting [but] getting the X-ray right away. In all broad spectrums, whether someone has an orthopedic injury or pediatric problem or infection, we do all sorts of things here," said Cha.

Brunswick Urgent Care is located at 3110 Route 27, Kendall Park. The facility is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, visit www.brunswickurgentcare.net or call (732) 422-4889.