For locals in Lightfoot and the surrounding area, easier access to fast health care is coming soon.
Velocity Urgent Care recently announced it would be opening its second location in Lightfoot, according to the company’s website.
Velocity Urgent Care is a fast-paced clinic where patients can walk in without an appointment and get seen quickly. Board-certified physicians care for a variety of medical needs from illnesses to injuries.
The new Velocity Urgent Care will be in the Lightfoot Marketplace near the ABC store. Currently there isn’t anything in the location and the company will start renovating and constructing exam rooms in the next few months.
The project is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2020, according to the company’s website.
The company has nine locations throughout the area, and is spreading across Virginia, but the current location in New Town is the busiest of all, said CEO Alan Ayers. The Lightfoot location will help spread some of New Town’s traffic, which will create more opportunities for services.
“What this [new location] will do is open capacity in New Town by providing an opportunity in the north,” Ayers said. “It’ll allow us to add additional services at New Town as well, such as occupational medicine services.”
The company chose Lightfoot for its new location because it saw there was a lack of access for residents north of Williamsburg. Ayers said there was a gap between Williamsburg and Richmond where people were having to travel far for urgent care services.
Ayers also said the company noticed there was a large population growth north of Williamsburg and felt that opening a location in Lightfoot would be a good way to follow that growth.
The company decided to place it in Lightfoot and not further north, such as in Toano or New Kent, because it had the infrastructure to support the business.
“Urgent care is something people use when needed,” he said. “So in order to support an urgent care, you need a certain density of population so the challenge with the communities north of Williamsburg before Richmond is there’s not the density.”
This new location will still provide those communities with a greater opportunity for access. It also provides the opportunity for physicians to easily refer patients to nearby health care facilities, such as the Sentara Regional Medical Center or the CHKD Health Center.
Ayers said those are important aspects of the location because an urgent care facility acts as the front door to the greater health care system in a community.
He added that the new location provides multiple solutions, from creating accessibility for locals to addressing capacity at the New Town location.
“Opening Lightfoot has been a defensive measure for us,” he said. “Because we see an opportunity to grow business to the north but also a way to defend our current business. We just want to improve convenience and access and make our services available to even more people in Williamsburg.”
For more information, visit Velocity Urgent Care online.
