By Mark Reynolds
On December 19 Nikita Schwab entered the First Care Medical Center in Highland, making her their 400,000th office visit since the facility opened in January 2008. In addition, Dr. Stephen Weinman said they are at or near registering their 85,000th patient.
“Last year we had 38,000 office visits and our peak was in 2021 with 43,620 visits. A lot were covid but the rest were all the other things like tick bites and poison ivy especially in the summer,” he said.
Weinman said during covid their respiratory care was down.
“Respiratory care is the ‘bread and butter’ of an urgent care, which includes strep throat, coughs and colds, bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, sinusitis and influenza (flu),” he said. Weinman credits his office manager Kim Doyle and his wife Mille for initiating tele-medicine that proved beneficial to his patients and for his center during the worst of the pandemic.
Weinman found the location for his center while driving around town and seeing an empty field that was owned by the late Ben Bragg Jr. A deal was struck.
“We let him pick the builders and Mille designed the layout of the building,” Weinman said.
The Urgent Care Center also has a primary care practice run by Dr. Lauren Vigna, and nurse practitioner, Jennifer Barresi FNP, “for people who want a family doctor.” In addition, on site there is Essence Medispa, a premier beauty and aesthetic clinic, and a physical therapy portion of the practice.
Dr. Weinman said his center performs Occupational Medicine that services businesses and their employees, handling Workman’s Comp cases, doing annual physicals for Fire Departments, the Department of Transportation [DOT], the Highland School District, Highway Departments and for Central Hudson.
Dr. Weinman said First Care performs physicals that the patient’s employer has deemed appropriate, noting that many of the fire departments he serves have different requirements.
“They all want a fit test where we test the leakage of the masks they wear in a fire,” he said. “We also do EKGs and pulmonary function tests to see if there are any restrictions in the lungs, as well as treadmill tests.”
Dr. Weinman is a certified Medical Review Officer [MRO] and analyzes drug tests when a rare positive comes back from a lab. He has to ask the person tested for an explanation to determine their fitness for driving a truck or a bus. He also has to report his findings to the employer, who has the option of terminating them or having them go to a substance abuse professional, “who will put them on a track to clean themselves up.”
Weinman has nothing but praise for his staff of 25, saying that, “First Care could not function without them here. They are the best medical staff I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve worked in 85 hospitals before I came here, and I’ve lived in seven states and even in Guam.”
Weinman said it is important for the community to know the level of professionalism that his staff provides for them.
“They are so dedicated, and even when we’re overwhelmed they go above and beyond,” he said. “I have to say that I am so appreciative of the staff; they really are amazing. I like to stress to them how much of a community service this center is.”
First Care is located at 222 Rte. 299 in Highland. They are open on weekdays 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4pm. They can be reached at 845-691-3627.