At Well – Family Medical and Urgent Care Services, Kelley Scott is trying to change the landscape of healthcare as we speak moving away from patients as a number to building patient relationships.
“I started as a nurse in 1998 and it was always like my patients are like my family,” she explained. “I would never do something for them that I wouldn’t do for my own brother or my mom. I always took that very seriously.”
Scott’s journey to open Well started with an experience at a local urgent care during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was “pretty sick” and needed a COVID test.
“I actually never had been to an urgent care before that,” she said, noting she had to wait from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. to get on a list. “I had this experience where it was like, very impersonalized. They were kind of rude and it was kind of gross … it wasn’t the nicest experience.”
Scott left the urgent care “super defeated.”
“As a healthcare provider being in the hospital for 20 years, I was like ‘Wow is this how we treat people?’” she recalled, adding she “actually cried.” “I just couldn’t believe that was the state of healthcare. It really opened my eyes.”
The pandemic changed the healthcare landscape dramatically, Scott said.
“I realized very quickly that there were no opportunities for COVID testing other than the hospital and at that time you had to be out for like two weeks,” she said. “And it was very taboo to be sick.”
Scott started offering a drive thru COVID swab clinic out of her hydration gym in Long Beach Island.
“I met really great people in the community and it felt really good to be able to provide a service that otherwise was unavailable unless you would go to an urgent care,” she said.
Fast forward a little bit when COVID tests became more readily available, Scott met with her last swab of the day.
“It was a woman who was on chemo,” Scott recalled. “We were chit chatting and it turns out she was one of my neighbors.
“I was walking away from the car and she was like ‘Oh Kelley, where’s your office? And I was like I should get one, I really should get one.”
The woman’s simple question planted a little seed, which ultimately led to her opening Well. She found her first location in Manahawkin after noticing the space on MillCreek Road.
“I live right down the street and the space was empty,” Scott said. “It was like 2 a.m. in the morning. My best friend was in the car with me and we were getting dropped off from a trip. She’s like, ‘You should go there’ and I was like, ‘I feel like I should.’”
The next day she contacted the owner and “it really kind of fell into place.”
“I had no idea of how I was going to do it, I had no business plan other than I wanted to make a difference,” Scott said. “I wanted to provide better care and just treat people with kindness. As nurse practitioners, we just have a different view on how we treat our patients. It’s more like a team effort.”
A visit to Well includes sitting down in comfortable chairs to discuss goals.
“I think you deliver better healthcare that way,” Scott said. “I’m on your team and you may feel like maybe I should call her if I’m having trouble with my medication or if I’m worried about something … that’s what I want [from a patient]. I want you to call me, I don’t want you to worry … let me worry.
“People are surprised when they see our rooms. One of the little guys said, ‘Thanks for letting me come to your living room’ and I was like, ‘You’re welcome.’ The fact that not only was it the best description of what we want to try to achieve, he was comfortable enough to sit on my chair and let me look in his ears.”
With the Manahawkin office taking off roughly three years ago at 853 MillCreek Road, Well opened a second location in Hammonton in May.
“It really was not planned,” Scott said of the second location. “We were friends with some people in Hammonton and we kind of stumbled upon that location [at 1 Sindoni Lane.]”
“That location reminded me a little bit of this , the way the layout is on the ground floor and the rooms. It was nice because there was a blank slate so we knew what kind of worked from an infectious standpoint with COVID and how to move people through without a cluttered waiting room.
“That’s kind of how we designed Hammonton.”
Looking back at the last few years, Scott said “it’s been really fun.”
“We love our patients,” she said, noting patients have ranged from a newborn to mid-90s from checking labs to some primary care.
“I love the fact too that my patients, my primary patients don’t go to urgent care, they come back here. I know they have had strep throat six times, I know they had ear infections.”
In healthcare today, Scott feels “that continuity of care, not only patient-centered care” is also missing. That is her hope for her business.
“That’s what I like … when they come to us, we can get them right in,” she said. “They can come in that day when they are sick.”
Healthcare has moved away from the days of seeing the same doctor. Did that fail for some reason or is that the modern way of healthcare, Scott wondered.
“Everything is moving so quickly … I don’t know if it is going to actually work … it seems like it’s working here,” Scott said, adding having the right providers is key.
Well takes walk-ins and takes most major medical insurances including Medicare. A basic office visit for those uninsured is $99.
“I guess because it looks nice and people assume we don’t take insurance and that is not the case, we do,” Scott emphasized.
Well has 10 people, all board-certified nurse practitioners, on staff among both locations.
They can help manage acute (new) and chronic medical conditions including health/sport physicals and department of transportation physicals. They are here for urgent problems including but not limited to:
- Treatment of acute illness
- Ear irrigation
- EKG
- Medication via injection (including tetanus vaccine)
- Nebulizer treatments
- Burn treatment
- Foreign object removal
- Incision and drainage
- Splint placement
- Suture repair and removal
- IV therapy
- Other offerings include healthy lifestyle management program.
At Well, they offer physical exams for children and teens for school, camp and sports physicals. Their providers are also certified examiners for the Department of Transportation physicals.
“Our main focus is that it’s not corporate and that’s what a lot of people ask us, ‘Who are you affiliated with?’” Scott said. “It’s not, you are not a number here, you are an actual person with actual problems.
“Coming from the ER, I worked in Atlantic City for a long time and it’s funny, people would come in for socks and that’s OK … they come in for a turkey sandwich … it’s OK, that is the humanistic value and is our main driving force here.”
With healthcare sometimes, one does feel like a number and that no one really cares.
“Some people just need a hug,” Scott said. “They just need you to listen to them complain. It’s like when you call your mom, ‘This is the worst day ever,’ and she’s like, ‘OK, let’s get it together’… that’s sometimes it, you need perspective to get back at it.”
And so far so good at Well.
“I feel like the universe guides you,” Scott said. “I’m thankful … because when I started the hydration company coming from the ER, we give fluids out. You come in with a headache, a stomachache, people feel better when hydrated. As an advocate, a fitness person, that kind of sprung that.”
With the word well, Scott thought of a well of water and took it a step further and thought of well as a definition.
“A noun, the state of being well … it’s an adjective, and adverb and all the things fit into a perfect package of what well is – wellness,” Scott said, explaining how the name fit and they added a drop and medical cross to make their logo for the urgent care/primary care practice.
And as the holidays are in full swing, Scott said it’s important to just be smart regarding gatherings.
“If you don’t feel well, it’s probably better to meet up with them next week,” she said.
And preventative care including good hand washing will go a long way.
“A lot of upper respiratory illness is spreading and while COVID is still there, but not so much, you have to remember the other things like the flu, we saw an unusual amount of strep throat with kids, mycoplasma pneumoniae we are seeing, RSV, it’s still circulating,” Scott said.
With that preventative care and when all is “well,” getting to spend time and laugh with family and friends may be the best medicine of all.
