Trios Health temporarily closing Kennewick Avenue urgent care over staffing challenges

Trios Health is temporarily closing its urgent care center at 3000 W. Kennewick Ave. while it works on recruiting more providers.

Staffing challenges over the last several months led to the move, which is effective Sunday.

During the last few months, “this location has been without provider coverage sporadically due to illness and other absences, and therefore could not accept patients during what would otherwise be normal business hours,” a Trios news release said.

The temporary closure will help avoid “any further unforeseen inconveniences to patients, as well as curb inefficiencies in facility operations as Trios continues recruiting efforts for additional providers at multiple urgent care locations,” the release said.

The plan is to reopen Trios Urgent Care Center-Central Kennewick when provider staffing is up, Trios spokeswoman Lisa Teske said.

The closure is not related to the workforce restructuring Trios is undergoing as part of a plan to improve its troubled finances, she said.

Dr. Sergio Flores and nurse practitioner Susan Harp, the urgent care’s current providers, will temporarily move to Trios Urgent Care Center-Columbia Center at 7201 W. Grandridge Blvd., Suite 100.

That facility is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Trios also offers after-hours pediatric urgent care at the Columbia Center facility, open 5 to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturdays.

Trios Urgent eCare is available around the clock.

For details on all the urgent care services, go to trioshealth.org/access.

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 7:37 PM with the headline "Trios Health temporarily closing Kennewick Avenue urgent care over staffing challenges."