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After MedExpress abruptly closed its medical clinic on Don Knotts Boulevard, Dr. Kevin Blankenship jumped at the opportunity to get back to doing what he does best.
While this is an all-new venture for Blankenship, he is no stranger to urgent care. Long before MedExpress became a subsidiary of Optum which is a division of health care giant United Health Care, Blankenship and several partners co-founded the first MedExpress location.
After a successful decade as the co-founder and COO at MedExpress, he stepped away in 2010 to spend more time with family and has since dedicated much of his time facing our nation’s addiction crisis. He is the founder and owner of Jacob’s Ladder at Brookside Farm, a long-term residential recovery/treatment center in Aurora.
He never strayed too far from urgent care though. For the last couple years, he’s been the Chairman and Chief Medical Officer for the Urgent Care Group, a multi-brand urgent care operator based out of Brentwood, Tenn., with facilities in Georgia and the Carolinas. Blankenship is transitioning out of that role to put his focus on the new Waterfront Urgent Care center in Morgantown, where he calls home.
While the excitement of growing the previous businesses was enjoyable, Blankenship has felt a yearning to exit the corporate level and return to his roots.
That is why he decided to form Waterfront Urgent Care with a commitment to focusing on just the single operation and said, “I’m really looking forward to taking care of my friends and neighbors again.”
Waterfront Urgent Care will provide treatment for illness and injury from 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. every day of the week The facility will support urgent care visits with diagnostics like X-rays and basic laboratory testing, as well as minor surgical procedures. Some occupational medicine and workers compensation services will also be provided.
Blankenship will be joined by Erik Buzzard, DO, a former emergency medicine physician, and Erica Murray, PA-C, to round out the provider team. They will be supported by an experienced medical staff — all of whom have prior health care and/or direct urgent care experience.
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