UPMC, GoHealth Urgent Care acquire Morgantown-based MedExpress

The UPMC and GoHealth Urgent Care locations can act as a personal care provider or regular family medicine doctor for a patient, but they can also help patients find a regular doctor outside of urgent care. 

The facilities are meant to fill in the gap between regular providers and emergency rooms, taking strain off of both.

Most UPMC GoHealth Urgent Care locations feature:

• Digital X-rays
• Blood testing
• EKG scans

Some also have a pharmacy in the building or are working toward an in-house pharmacy. A copy of each patient’s records is forwarded to their regular provider, if they have one, at the end of the visit.

The centers are open daily. Walk-ins are always accepted or a patient can make a reservation online.

What they said

Boyd Faust, chief strategy officer at GoHealth Urgent Care, cited a study from January 2024 showing that about 40% of emergency room visits are “medically nonurgent.� Examples of needs that can be filled at an urgent care center include:

• Allergies
• Broken bones that don’t require surgery
• Colds
• Coughs
• Flu
• Infections
• Pink eye
• Rashes
• Sprains
• Wounds that require stitches

Wheeling native Amy Meister, D.O., is the president of UPMC Community & Ambulatory Services and a graduate of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Meister made it clear that UPMC is not looking to open a hospital in West Virginia; but if there are needs for specialized care, that is something the company would consider fulfilling.

“We are always ready to hire more people, Meister said. "But one thing that's very exciting about UPMC — because we are a very large academic medical center — we have a pipeline, which is invaluable. That means we train the next generation of doctors, nurses, medical assistants, nurse practitioners, radiology technologists, and we have the opportunity then to offer this as a site for them once they've completed their training,� Meister said.

The GoHealth website has a list of its accepted insurance plans and also pricing for self-pay.