A new partnership organization comprising elements of UPMC and GoHealth Urgent Care on Tuesday celebrated the recent opening of 81 UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care centers — including the former MedExpress on Plank Road near Union Avenue.

With the partnership, UPMC has quickly accelerated its foray into urgent care, via the purchase of 86 MedExpress centers — all such locations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and some in Virginia — along with the rebranding of its own 22 UPMC urgent care centers, according to Jim Griesi, vice president of operations for GoHealth Urgent Care.

Instead of trying to grow its own urgent care collection “organically” in a slow, methodical process, UPMC has “instantly quadrupled its market presence” with an “acquisition and partnership strategy” that pairs UPMC’s clout as a leading academic health care provider with GoHealth’s urgent care experience, advanced “technical platforms” and national scope, according to Griesi.

The partnership with UPMC becomes the newest of 12 such alliances with “market leading health care systems” around the country for GoHealth, all of whose nearly 400 centers are operated under one of those partnerships, according to Griesi.

Partnering “with an existing service leader” made sense for UPMC, especially given the infrastructure, market and hiring difficulties that would have made the in-house approach difficult, said UPMC Altoona President Mike Corso.

Urgent care centers are ideal for urinary tract infections, coughs, colds, upper respiratory infections, sore throats, sports injuries, rashes, sprains, strains and minor wounds, said Dr. Peter Kang, associate medical director for Pennsylvania for UPMC-GoHealth, the partnership organization.

The local center has X-ray and laboratory capabilities, according to Kang.

Most medical complaints don’t need to be treated within a hospital, said Amy Meister, president of UPMC Community and Ambulatory Services.

The hospital, however, is the place for chest pain, shortness of breath, severe headaches, severe abdominal pain and symptoms that could indicate a heart attack or stroke, Kang said.

Even so, if someone shows up at an urgent care center with complaints that indicate a higher level of care is needed, the medical team at the center will direct them to that higher level, according to Kang.

Such referrals are designed to be “frictionless,” according to Meister.

Staff at the center will encourage patients being referred to UPMC practitioners, but would never “infringe on patient autonomy,” Kang said.

Ultimately, where a patient goes for further care is up to the patient, and the staff at the urgent care center will support that choice, Kang said.

The physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants at the partnership’s urgent care centers are employees of UPMC, while the rest of the staffs are employees of the partnership.

The partnership did what it could to keep the staffs from the former MedExpress centers, Griesi said.

For those who stayed, “nobody’s compensation went down,” he said.

The partnership’s urgent care centers accept most major health plans, including UPMC Health Plan, Highmark, Medicare and Medicaid, according to Meister.

UPMC and GoHealth are 50-50 partners in the joint venture, according to Griesi.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.