CityMD Treating Common Colds, Orthopedic Injuries in West End

CityMD, a walk-in urgent care facility, opened for business at 904 W. Beech St. on Dec. 30. 

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Since its founding in 2010, CityMD has opened 10 facilities across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, with the office in Long Beach representing the first on Long Island.

"This is a very exciting time for CityMD,” CEO Dr. Richard Park said in a statement. “Our recent expansions into Brooklyn and Queens are introducing us to new communities where we can make a difference. We look forward to assisting Long Beach residents with all of their healthcare needs as we continue to bring New Yorkers high quality and convenient care.”

A Premier Care urgent-care facility was due to open in December at the West End unit, but before it did City MD, an affiliate, moved in. The facility is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

CityMD arrives in Long Beach 14 months after Hurricane Sandy battered the city, while the Long Beach Medical Center, the barrier island’s lone hospital that sustained heavy damages, remains closed since the storm. An urgent care facility that was proposed for the LBMC campus has yet to open, and officials from LBMC and South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside continue negotiate a potential merger.

CityMD is said to employ medical assistants, technicians and board-certified physicians who provide adult and pediatric care on a wide variety of illnesses and injuries. Dr. Neil Hadpawat — one of the Long Beach facility’s two board-certified emergency physicians and a former LBMC emergency room doctor — told the Long Beach Herald the CityMD handles all types of mini-emergencies, from the common colds to orthopedic injuries, and non-critical medical emergencies, including geriatric and pediatric patients, and provides X-ray services and blood work on site and arranges CT scans, MRIs and ultrasound off-site. While CityMD does not receive 911 ambulances, the facility would arrange to transport a patient with a critical injury by ambulance to a local hospital. Hadpawat said of CityMD’s office in Long Beach:

“We’re rapidly expanding, but after Sandy we focused on the Long Beach community because there was a need there, particularly in the West End. What’s great about having an urgent-care center in the community is that people will be able to access doctors without having to wait or make appointments — with a minimal wait time in a waiting room — and have access to a specialist who is trained to deal with all types of emergencies as you would in an E.R., but now in a clean, efficient, state-of-the-art setting.”