Still walk-in options for medical care in Alpena
WellNow Urgent Care will close, but others are ready to fill void
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ALPENA -- WellNow Urgent Care is closing at the end of the month and MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena and Alcona Health Center representatives said that the two healthcare providers are prepared to meet the healthcare needs in the community to avoid long wait times at the emergency room.
According to a University of Michigan Health Lab article, "Wait times for emergency hospitalization keep getting higher" published in 2025, the wait time for patients to receive a bed in the emergency room has increased since 2020, nationwide.
Author Kara Gavin explained that the nationwide phenomenon is called "boarding," when emergency room patients have to wait more than four hours to receive a hospital bed. Gavin explained that the issue "accelerated" in the mid-2020s but remained a concern for the next four years.
According to the article, in the last three years, more than 25% of all patients who came to a hospital's emergency department during a non-peak month, and got admitted to the same hospital, waited four hours or more for a bed. During the winter months it was closer to 35%.
Gavin states that the national hospital standards say that no patient should board in an emergency department for more than four hours, for safety and care quality reasons.
Gavin cites a study that shows by 2024, nearly 5% of all patients in the nation admitted to a hospital from its emergency department during the peak months of winter waited a full day for a bed. During the off-peak months, 2.6% waited similar amounts of time.
As of Wednesday at 1:56 p.m., there was a thirty minute wait time at the MiMichigan Health Alpena Urgent Care location. As of 2 p.m., the MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena emergency room wait time estimate was a little over two hours.
Jessica McEwan, MyMichigan Health Alpena vice president and chief administrative officer, said that MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena works to provide timely care to patients and will continue to provide access to urgent care services even after WellNow Urgent care shuts its doors.
"We’re committed to being here for the community and providing access to care when people need it," she said. "Our emergency room or our MyMichigan urgent care, both of them will remain open and available to patients wherever they’re seeking care."
The MyMichigan Urgent Care Alpena is located on Long Rapids Road in Alpena.
"What's important is that we want people to know ... we’re here. We're open. We’re going to remain open, and wherever they choose to receive their care, we’re here for them."
As of Aug. 11, McEwan said that MyMichgian Health was considering ways that the urgent care could accommodate more patients as the need for care potentially increases.
"Of course, our ER is open 24/7, 365 days a year," she said. "Our urgent care team is looking at what do we do to change, to accommodate for patients who choose to use our urgent care, accommodating that increased volume in that urgent care."
McEwan reiterated that MyMichigan Health is committed to accommodating patients and making healthcare accessible. That means ensuring that patients go to the right place for the right type of care.
"Our focus is really going to be on caring for the patients in the right place at the right time when they come to see us," she said. "Our urgent care, what we have really focused on over the years, is going to the right place. When people have a sore throat, an earache, a toothache, a small laceration, that kind of thing, pointing them in the direction of urgent care versus the emergency room, so we can take care of those higher acuity patients in the emergency room to decrease the wait time for the patients."
She added that wait times are monitored and MyMichigan Health works to make sure patients are seen in a timely manner.
"We’re constantly evaluating our volumes and our wait times and that kind of thing," McEwan said. "We're here to provide access to the community. We’re here for the community, so access is really important for us, so we’re constantly evaluating that. If we need to add more resources, then we’re here to do that."
According to McEwen, people seeking care can visit mimichigan.org to view wait times to determine which location will meet their medical care needs.
Kayla Dietz, director of provider relations and outreach at Alcona Health Center, said that Alcona Health Center currently offers walk-in services for community members at the U.S.-23 North location in Alpena. She added that those who wish to use the walk-in for health concerns do not have to be a primary care patient to receive care.
"We currently offer walk-in services for anyone in the community, they don’t have to be a patient at Alcona Health Center," she said.
According to Dietz, the Alcona Health Center has walk-in hours in Alpena Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. On Saturdays, the walk-in clinic is open from 9 a.m. to noon.
Dietz explained that community members can utilize the walk-in clinic for things like cold symptoms, bug bites, rashes, and other non-emergency health concerns.
To meet the potential needs of the community once WellNow Urgent Care closes, Dietz added that Alcona Health Center and its staff are confident in their ability to bridge that gap. The facility is also open to expanding its walk-in services if there is the need.
"We are very confident in the walk-in services we provide," Dietz said. "We are open to revising our hours if we realize there is a need in the community that we can meet."
Dietz explained that the center's walk-in clinic works by assigning a primary care provider to serve walk-in patients in a single day.
"They don't see any of their primary care patients, just walk-in patients," she said.
Beyond walk-in hours, Dietz said that the center works mainly in the field of preventative care, ensuring that patients are seen as regularly as needed to prevent any major medical intervention. She said this means accommodating the needs of the patient and offering same day appointments.
"We offer the ability to see a provider when you aren't feeling good," Dietz said. "We want our patients to be as healthy as possible."
She explained that some challenges that people in Northeast Michigan experience when seeking medical care is access and cost. Alcona Health Center attempts to make access to healthcare more attainable by accommodating patients and offering sliding scales for payments.
She added that Alcona Health Center participates with most insurances, including Medicare and Medicaid.
"We are very rurally located so it’s just access to services," Deitz said. "The cost of insurance, it can be very expensive to see a provider. We have the ability to work with people who are put off by the cost of health insurance or do not know where to start."
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.