New SEK Urgent Care to open soon

Area residents will soon have another option at their disposal when it comes to urgent medical care needs.

Brent Cosens, Arma, an emergency medical physician and Fort Scott native who currently operates a Pittsburg-based urgent care center, plans to open up a new local facility in June. The new Southeast Kansas Urgent Care Center will be located at 1624 S. National Ave.

An extensive remodeling project, which began several weeks ago, is still underway to transform the building into a medical clinic by this summer, Cosens said.

"Hopefully about June we'll be open," he said. "It's coming along steadily. We're trying to finalize our business hours and things like that."

When it opens, the Southeast Kansas Urgent Care Center will be the second facility of its kind to open in Fort Scott within the last several months, and the third medical center in the area to offer fast medical care services.

Mercy Health Center also offers an urgent care center inside its main facility, 401 Woodland Hills Blvd., and a quick care center inside Woods Supermarket, 2322 S. Main St. However, the services offered and hours of operation at those centers are different. Mercy Urgent Care staff treat patients for acute illnesses and injuries, while quick care staff provide services for more minor health care needs.

Nurses and trained staff at the SEK Urgent Care Center will see patients on a daily basis for a variety of minor illnesses and injuries, Cosens said.

"We won't deal with anything life threatening," he said. "We're not an E.R. We're an urgent care clinic and we will treat people for colds, flu, lacerations, fractures, things of that nature."

Staff at the center will also help patients with such conditions or ailments as minor respiratory infections, sprains and strains, insect bites and rashes, and suture removal.

Although the hours of operation at the SEK Urgent Care Center have not been set, Cosens said the center will be open during normal daytime business hours, and that he will work at the clinic full-time once it opens.

Cosens, a 15-year doctor of osteopathy who practices emergency medicine in Pittsburg and Fort Scott, said he is well aware of the competition in Fort Scott, but that he feels there is room in the town for another urgent care facility. Cosens also explained the reason behind his decision to open the new center in Fort Scott.

"Fort Scott is my home," he said. "My kids have gone to school in Fort Scott, and I've always wanted to come back and practice there. I just had a desire to come back home."

Cosens graduated from the College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Mo.

The SEK Urgent Care Center will be located inside a building that previously housed Scotty's Wine and Spirits, a liquor store that operated there for 15 years before the business' owners, Jim and Martha Scott, sold it to Cosens last summer.