With an eye toward expanding access to health care in the region, Mount Nittany Health is getting ready to open its first walk-in clinic.
Mount Nittany Health ExpressCare will open on Monday, May 13, at 2051 S. Atherton St. in College Township, between Hotworx fitness studio and Redline Nutrition in the Hills Plaza.
The urgent care clinic for minor illnesses and injuries will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, and hours are expected to extend into the early evening in the fall. The 2,400-square-foot space, which the Centre County-based health system began leasing last October, also has room to expand in the future.
No appointments are required and care will be available to anyone of any age, not just Mount Nittany patients, Dr. Christopher Hester, Mount Nittany Physician Group chief medical officer, said on Monday prior to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the facility.
The clinic, which will accept Medicare and most commercial insurances, aims to provide “access to care when patients need the care,” Hester said.
“As a primary care provider in the area, I’m aware of how frustrating it is to get appointments, and especially appointments when you want and need that appointment on the same day,” Hester said. “This clinic was started to provide patients access to that care.”
The clinic will have four exam rooms and will be staffed by Mount Nittany Health providers. Treatment will be offered for conditions such as cold and flu, minor cuts and burns, ear pain, insect bites and stings, pink eye, rashes, sexually transmitted diseases, sinus infections, sore throats, sprains and joint pain and urinary tract infections.
Mount Nittany ExpressCare also will offer flu shots, limited other vaccinations and sports, camp and driver’s license physicals.
“We see this as an extension of our primary care offices, so things that you would typically go to your primary care office but you can’t get an appointment there or they don’t have a time that suits you, you could come here,” Hester said. “We want to emphasize that this facility is for the care of patients that are already Mount Nittany patients or for those that are not patients of Mount Nittany. Whether you’re from a local health system here or whether you’re from out of town, you can seek care here.”
The opening of the facility will mark two firsts, Dawn Tice, chief operating officer for Mount Nittany Physician Group, said. It is not only the first Mount Nittany Health walk-in clinic, but also the first urgent care center of any kind in the South Atherton Street area. (Geisinger CareWorks and MedExpress Urgent Care are both located about 4 miles away on North Atherton Street.)
“So this is the first time we’ll be offering convenience care in this region,” Tice said. “We’re very excited to be here at Hills Plaza, and we really feel this will be a great service to the families and to the students and individuals that live in this area.”
Patients can expect to find “the same great care that people have come to rely on and trust from Mount Nittany Health” in a convenient and accessible format, Kathleen Rhine, the health system’s president and CEO, said.
“This is a new way for us to extend our mission into the community,” Rhine said. “It’s one of a number of things we are doing as we grow and change as we listen to our community and we hear what it is people would like to have when it comes to health care.”
Among the other ways Mount Nittany Health is growing is a new $90 million, four-story outpatient medical center at Toftrees West in Patton Township, which is expected to open this summer.
At the medical center, meanwhile, the second phase of major renovations to the diagnostic pavilion opened earlier this year and the third phase is expected to be completed in the fall. Work also began last year on a $350 million, 10-story patient tower addition at the medical center, with completion anticipated in late 2026.
Other recent projects include a new clinical laboratory that opened in early 2023 at the medical center.
