New urgent care facility to open in crowded LCF shopping plaza
La Cañada residents needing medical attention will soon have another option to their avail, after a new Exer Urgent Care facility plans to open its doors — in a suite at 475 Foothill Blvd. — to the public in a ceremony May 29.
Billing itself as a privately owned alternative to crowded hospital emergency rooms, Exer will offer on-site lab, pharmacy, IV and X-ray services as well as splinting, diagnostics and laceration care.
Representatives say the facility, affiliated with Pasadena’s Huntington Hospital, will offer more comprehensive medical services than walk-in urgent care centers.
The La Cañada Flintridge center occupies 5,283 square feet out of a 7,833-square-foot storefront in the Trader Joe’s shopping center adjacent to Starbucks. The business will operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
In a Jan. 10 hearing before the city’s Planning Commission, representatives of El Segundo-based Exer Holding Co., LLC said although the business is capable of handling about 80% of hospital emergency room cases, only about 2% of the 50 to 60 patients seen per day would require transport to another medical facility.
Those patients would be taken to waiting ambulances in an 11-spot parking lot on the northwest corner of the shopping center to avoid worsening already complicated traffic patterns there, according to Scott Whitney, vice president of real estate and development.
Commissioners approved a conditional use permit on the condition ambulances use only the northwest parking lot.
Exer Urgent Care will host a grand opening ceremony and ribbon cutting at 8:30 a.m. May 29, with a public welcome celebration planned for 3 to 7 p.m. on May 28.
