The new community-owned Boothbay Region Health Center welcomes all of our summer residents, summer visitors, and summer workers. We are located in the Meadow Mall, across from Hannaford’s and next to the Family Dollar Store. We provide the most inexpensive, quality primary care on the Boothbay peninsula. We take most insurance, and we offer a 30% discount for those who are un-insured and pay at the time of service. We’re open seven days/week. Our hours are Monday thru Friday are 8:30 to 4:30; Saturday and Sunday we’re open from 10 to 4.
Health Center, Urgent Care, or Call 911?
Here’s some information about what services the BRHC provides and when you should go to the Urgent Care Center on St. Andrews campus, or call 911, or go to an Emergency Room.
Start with your own Physician. If you already have a local health care provider (MD, DO, or Nurse Practitioner), you should always call your local primary care provider first. They will have 24-hour phone coverage and they have your past medical history. If you have another provider, and choose to come instead to the Health Center for same day walk-in treatment, we will send the Notes from your visit with us to your regular doctor, with your permission. And, if you use a patient portal for another provider, or have your medical records organized and handy, bring them along (including your login info for your patient portal). That way, our providers will be better able to access your medical history.
When to come to the Boothbay Region Health Center
If you don’t have a local doctor, or can’t get an appointment right away, and you have a health concern, come to the Health Center. You can call (633-1075) for a same day appointment or just walk in. We treat patients of all ages. The Health Center is like any doctor’s office; you are seen by primary care providers (Doctors & Nurse Practitioners) who can treat most ailments.
We can help you if you have a sore throat (we do rapid strep tests), earache, or rash, or a reaction to bug bites. We treat colds and minor allergies.
We can check your blood pressure, and do EKGs.
If you have a bad scrape or a bad cut, we can treat abrasions, and many of our providers can stitch up lacerations. We also do suture removal.
We diagnose and treat joint and muscular pain, or any kind of chronic pain. We offer pain management, including hands on Trigger Point Therapy (Nurse Practitioner, Brett Auclaire). (Trigger Point can treat a myriad of symptoms, from chronic pain to teeth grinding or trouble going up or down stairs, as just a few examples.)
We treat minor asthma flare-ups. We can diagnose and treat upper respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia or bronchitis, and we may need to send you to get X-Rays to confirm our diagnosis.
If you have flu-like symptoms, we can do rapid influenza tests, and we will also check you for lyme disease and/or any of the other tick-born co-infections. If you have found a tick embedded on you, and have removed it, please bring it in for testing (in scotch tape or a baggie) so we can find out which diseases it carries and do an early, correct diagnosis. If you don’t have the tick, but feel lousy and want to rule out emergent lyme disease, or chronic lyme, we want to diagnose you. We use specialized screening and blood testing to identify which of over 20 tick-born diseases you might have contracted. We also treat any other insect bites or stings. But if you are having trouble breathing due to an insect sting, please call 911.
We can diagnose and treat urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases–we do urinalysis for immediate results, and then we can do urine cultures. We also do pregnancy testing.
We draw blood and take urine samples and send them off to the lab for overnight testing and notify you of the results promptly. Some lab tests we do in-house for immediate results, such as diabetic A1C’s, pregnancy tests, and blood sugar tests.
We do pap smears and breast exams, prescribe birth control, and treat menopausal symptoms.
If you’re suffering from abdominal pain, you might want to call our Health Center (633-1075) to speak with one of our health coordinators to determine the appropriate facility. Some abdominal pains require ultrasound for diagnosis, which is not always available at St. Andrew’s Urgent Care.
In the case of dizziness and lightheadedness in elderly patients, we can diagnose the likely cause and adjust medications, as needed.
The Health Center also provides free car seat checks (and, hopefully soon, free car seat distribution for qualified families).
Services the Urgent Care Center Provides that BRHC Doesn’t
The Urgent Care Center is located on the St. Andrews Campus of LincolnHealth on the waterfront in Boothbay Harbor. It is open 7 days a week from 8 am to 8 pm. It is staffed with Emergency Room doctors, medical technicians, x-ray technicians, and nurses. An Urgent Care Center is a walk-in clinic for ambulatory care outside of an emergency room setting. The fees are generally higher than those charged at a regular doctor’s office (like our Health Center), but somewhat lower than those charged at a full-blown Emergency Room.
Here are some of the services that the Lincoln Health St. Andrews Campus Urgent Care Center provides that the Boothbay Region Health Center does not: on-site CAT scans and x-rays, on-site blood testing and analysis, IV fluids and medications.
If you suspect you have a broken bone, please go to Urgent Care. Urgent Care has Imaging services (X-Ray and CAT Scans). Urgent Care is the best place to go for fractures or sprains with no visible bone.
If you have been vomiting or having prolonged diarrhea, you should go to Urgent Care. They can rehydrate you using IVs, and diagnose possible causes.
If you have dental pain: The Urgent Care physicians are trained to do “dental blocks” which can help alleviate dental pain without narcotics.
If you are burned: The Urgent Care has access to more “state-of-the art” bandages, and to the care team at the Burn Unit at Maine Medical Center for consult.
If you have something in your eye: The Urgent Care has a slit lamp, numbing eye drops, Morgan lenses (they are sterile plastic devices that resemble contact lenses, which allow copious irrigation of the eye), a tonometer (which measures the pressure within the eye).
For very severe headaches: The Urgent Care has the capability to administer IV fluids and IV medications if necessary.
Animal bites: The Urgent Care has access to x-ray imaging and IV antibiotics if indicated (many cat bites end up needing IV antibiotics).
Services that BRHC Offers that Urgent Care Does Not
We do physical exams for people of all ages. We do camp physicals, sports physicals, work physicals, medical clearance physicals (after detox and rehab). We do allergy shots. We administer many vaccinations. We provide women’s health services.
When should you call 911? Or go to an Emergency Room?
Even if you feel you don’t need to be transported by an ambulance, you should call 911, rather than just drive to an Emergency Room (LincolnHealth Miles Campus in Damariscotta, or Midcoast Hospital in Brunswick).
Many people hesitate about calling 911, because they don’t want to pay for an ambulance. But the 911 emergency staff are highly trained to help you sort out the right course of action. Many people also don’t realize the level of training our Boothbay Region Ambulance Service (BRAS) EMTs and Paramedics have, and the technologies/medications that are available in the back of the ambulance. Many of these treatments can be administered in your home. For example, the ambulance crew can administer medications, such as epinephrine for allergic reactions, Narcan for drug overdoses, clot busters for strokes. They have the ability to perform EKGs and to send them electronically to the ER for the doctor to review while you’re en route. For people who need assistance (a fall you can’t get up from, for example), the BRAS crew will “lift and assist” at no charge and without transporting you to the hospital if it isn’t medically necessary.
If you have chest pain (discomfort, pressure, fullness, squeezing), shortness of breath, stroke-like symptoms (facial drooping or numbness, arm or leg weakness, speech difficulty, slurred speech, inability to speak, rapid loss or change in vision, sudden severe headache), call 911.
For acute psychiatric illness, call 911 or get to an ER. Neither the Urgent Care Center, nor the Boothbay Region Health Center has psychiatric resources. All acute psychiatric issues–where someone is a danger to themselves or others, is suicidal, or requires inpatient psychiatric care, or psych eval–should be transported to a hospital–either MidCoast in Brunswick or PenBay in Rockland. The same is true for people undergoing drug or alcohol withdrawals.
If you have open (bone showing) fractures (fractures that will need emergent orthopedic evaluation and/or emergent surgery), go to an ER.
If someone is unable to walk, or at least transfer from the car to a wheelchair by themselves, you will need to get them to an ER, either by ambulance or by driving them.
In the case of trauma (motor vehicle accidents, falls from a distance greater than a standing position), call 911.
Go to an ER for anything potentially needing inpatient care, and for any life-threatening illness or injury.
We hope you find this information useful. Enjoy a healthy and safe stay in the Boothbay Region!
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