A pediatric physician group has built nine clinics in New York City and New Jersey focused on providing care when parents tend to need it most — at inconvenient hours. PM Pediatrics has raised $14 million from the private equity arm of Scopia Capital Management, bringing Scopia’s total investment in the group to $24 million, according to Fortune’s Term Sheet. It fits in with a healthcare industry trend of both increasing access to care and patient-centered care.
Its urgent care facilities provide emergency care to children and young adults from noon to midnight from Monday to Saturday and 10 am to midnight on Sunday. Its clinics accept regular insurance, have an in-house lab and don’t require appointments, according to the article. Its patient needs pretty much echo what an emergency room would see. Musculoskeletal injuries and lab tests account for about 25 percent of its patients, followed by X-rays, lascerations and asthma.
Most of its nine clinics are in New York City and Long Island with a couple in New Jersey. Dr. Jeffrey Schor, the owner, co-founder and managing member of PM Pediatrics, told MedCity News in a phone interview that the funds would be used to help the business expand beyond those locations, such as South Jersey and places like Connecticut. It opened its first location nine years ago.
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“Our mission is to keep kids out of the emergency department,” said Schor. “Our belief is unless it is absolutely necessary, that’s not a great environments for kids. We wanted to have equipment for higher acuity patients and deliver that care in a nicer way. Patients and families have responded to that.”
Noon might seem like a weird time to open, but based on Schor’s experience that’s when hospital emergency room volume begins to rise. Schor said he doesn’t view the group as competing with primary care practices.
“Our sites are quite busy. We want to be in many different communities. Obviously in the near future we plan to expand locally and gradually spread out. We feel we are at a point where we are ready to expand out.”
About 50 full time physicians are trained in pediatrics and emergency pediatric medicine and PM Pediatrics has a total of 250 full- and part-time staff.
Although telemedicine is an area of interest and it would be open to participating in a pilot, it is not yet actively using it.
