By GREY PENTECOST -- Courier-Times staff writer
greypentecost@roxboro-courier.com
Several years ago Dr. Dan Phillips envisioned a business that was focused on “service, customer satisfaction and quality.” He partnered with someone who shared that vision, Dr. Kimmie Yarborough, and together they opened Roxboro MedAccess in 2008.
Last month, the business was recognized for fulfilling many of its goals when it was named 2012 Small Business of Year at the annual banquet of the Roxboro Area Chamber of Commerce.
The small business committee of the Chamber and the Small Business Center of Piedmont Community College, with the purpose of recognizing the importance of small business in Person County, present the annual award jointly.
To be eligible, a business must have been in operation for three years, have no more than 50 full-time employees, be located in Person County, demonstrate excellence in offering products and services, be involved in the community and make contributions to the community.
Ronnie and Rodney Bowes of Ronnie’s Appliances presented the award to MedAccess, winner of the 2011 award.
Before opening Roxboro MedAccess, Yarborough and Phillips were both living in Roxboro and working in emergency medicine. They had started to get burnt out in the field around the same time, so when Phillips approached Yarborough with his plans for an urgent care center, she was ready to join him in this new venture.
As an urgent care center, MedAccess is designed to serve patients dealing with any injury or illness when, for whatever reason, they cannot see their primary care doctor.
“This urgent care is pretty unique,” said Phillips, “in that of the four doctors who work here, three are residency trained in emergency medicine, and a fourth has extensive experience in emergency medicine.”
Upon the development of a national accreditation process, Roxboro MedAccess became the first urgent care center in North Carolina to receive accreditation.
Phillips said urgent care is a rapidly growing segment of medicine because it is more convenient, less hectic and less costly than a hospital emergency department. Roxboro MedAccess is also open 365 days a year.
Phillips said the business incorporates some of its primary goals into its advertising themes, such as, “Your time is important to us.
“We really strive to get people in and out in 60 minutes,” Phillips continued.
Their goal of keeping business in town is reflected in the slogan, “Why go to Durham?”
MedAccess’ mission and vision is summed up in the business making a point to “keep the business here in town and deliver a great product, and deliver great care, and everything else will take care of itself,” said Phillips.
Yarborough added, “Both of us are committed to trying to treat people nicely, because we’ve both been in environments where we’ve seen it not happen.”
She said the rest of the staff shares that commitment, which makes a difference when caring for sick or injured people.
Phillips attributed the success of MedAccess to the staff.
“They take pride in working here and delivering the service and being a part of it, and that’s immensely important.”
Yarborough and Phillips are also appreciative of their patients. For both of them, the most rewarding part of the job is being told by patients they are pleased with the service and are glad MedAccess is in town.
Phillips said they often receive thank you cards and special “goodies” at Christmas.
“It has made practicing medicine fun,” he said.
The owners were proud of MedAccess being named Small Business of the Year.
Phillips said he became a Chamber member about four years ago and had thought about what it would be like to receive that award someday.
He said the goal now is to continually improve as a business.
MedAccess currently rents space in its building to specialty practices in areas such as pulmonology, cardiology and oncology, and will soon be welcoming an allergy testing and treatment group.
The business’s focus in 2012, said Phillips, is to become a certified drug collection center, and expand its occupational medicine services to community employers.
When making plans to open Roxboro MedAccess, Phillips said he and Yarborough knew there was a need for an urgent care center in Roxboro, but didn’t know the need was as great as it was.
Phillips told The C-T, “The community support for this has been nothing short of extraordinary."