Yes! Northwestern Urgent Care in the Cobblestone Health Commons on NMC’s main campus in St. Albans is now once again accessible by Crest Road – the “new” Crest Road! We have made it through the most disruptive phase of the project to expand parking and improve traffic and pedestrian safety on the NMC campus. Crest Road is now in its new location and is open for vehicle traffic. It is now much easier to access Cobblestone Health Commons, which is great news, particularly for the patients of Northwestern Urgent Care who are looking for timely convenient care from the people they trust! It is now a straight drive to the back on the campus and a quick left and right to Cobblestone.
We did see a temporary shift in the number of visits to Northwestern Urgent Care from their St. Albans location to their Georgia location as well as an increase in those who opted to get non-emergent care from the Emergency Department during the height of construction, so I am very pleased to let all of you know that it is once again easy to access Northwestern Urgent Care’s services in Cobblestone on the hospital’s main campus.
We are now within three weeks of the full completion of the Crest Road project. The new road is in place with an initial layer of pavement. The new parking lots are taking shape. Portions of these lots are being made available for patient and visitor parking in their gravel stage as work is being completed in other areas. As work progresses, there will be days when one or the other of the entrances to the Doctors Office Common is under construction. Traffic to the practices in Doctors Office Common will be re-routed on those days through the other nearby entrance and around the buildings. Signage and flagging personnel are in place to assist traffic flow.
I want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during our construction. This project represents a wonderful step forward for our campus. As our community grows and needs evolve, we work to keep pace by ensuring appropriate services are available locally. This removes travel as a barrier to care, strengthens the continuity of care, and helps reduce the overall cost of receiving care. This progress creates a demand for additional parking and better traffic flow on campus, so the Crest Road relocation project is a strategically important investment in access to local care.
Meanwhile, Northwestern Urgent Care has implemented another exciting improvement in access to care for those times when your primary care provider is not available. Their new “Clockwise” system is now active, so patients can check access times for both the Georgia location and the St. Albans location over the internet! When you use your computer, tablet, or smart phone to visit NorthwesternUrgentCare.Com or NorthwesternMedicalCenter.Org, you will see a Clockwise box that displays current access times. By clicking on that box, you can reserve a spot in line for at time that is convenient to you. Patient response has been wait to this new approach has been very positive. Some are using it to decide which site to visit. For some, such as the parents of young children, it allows them to spend any time they would have had to wait in the comfort of their own home. Others are using it to finish one more project at work or slip in one more errand in town before stopping in to be seen for a non-emergent medical need. What a remarkable convenience made possible by a patient-focused staff and impressive technology!
It is so good to be beyond the most disruptive portion of the project and I’m thrilled to be able to say that yes, the new Crest Road to Northwestern Urgent Care in St. Albans is now open! We are nearing the end of the project and look forward to our patients and visitors and staff benefiting from the improvements. Once again, thank you for your continued patience with the work to expand parking and improve traffic and pedestrian safety at your community hospital. And even more so, thank you for entrusting your care to Northwestern Medical Center.
— Jill Berry Bowen, NMC’s Chief Executive Officer
