Dixon’s CGH Medical Center expands to include urgent care services

DIXON — CGH Medical Center in Dixon is expanding its services to include a Ready Care walk-in clinic that will open in early August.

The clinic will be located within CGH’s Dixon location at 1321 N. Galena Ave. Modeled after CGH’s existing Ready Care in Sterling, it will also be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

“Providing exceptional care for our patients and the communities we serve is at the heart of CGH’s mission,” said Dr. Paul Steinke, CGH president and CEO. “CGH Dixon Ready Care will offer the same expanded hours and range of services as our Ready Care clinic in Sterling and offers a same-day option for a variety of medical problems that need to be treated right away.”

CGH opened its first Ready Care clinic at its downtown Sterling location in 2012, offering an option of treatment for a variety of injuries and illnesses without the need to schedule an appointment. Then, in July 2023, the clinic expanded to include additional open hours, on-site lab and X-ray services and increased the amount of providers.

After seeing a need for urgent care services in the community, CGH decided to expand that location as part of CGH’s ongoing commitment to serve the community of Dixon, Breanne Hunter, media coordinator at CGH Medical Center, said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Like the Sterling Ready Care, the Dixon location will offer on-site lab and X-ray services; camp and sports physicals; laceration repair; and initial strain, sprain and fracture evaluations. It also will offer treatment for work-related injuries, sports injuries, colds, allergies, influenza, ear infections, bladder infections, strep throat, pneumonia, COVID, rashes, insect bites, minor burns and more.

The difference from the Sterling location is that lab services will only be available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Dixon location, Hunter said.

CGH’s Dixon Ready Care functions as the middle ground between an individual’s primary care provider and the emergency room. As the Ready Care is equipped with “lab and X-ray services it can handle a variety of medical problems that need to be treated right away, but do not require an emergency room visit. As a result, you will have shorter wait times than at the emergency department,” said Gina Grennan, CGH vice president of clinical services.

Either by walking in or using the clinic’s online waiting system, “reserve a spot,” patients can be treated the same day by a CGH nurse practitioner, a physician assistant under the care of CGH family medicine or an internal medicine physician. If needed, follow-up appointments can be made with the appropriate specialists, Hunter said.

CGH Medical Center is a care facility serving the Sauk Valley area of northern Illinois. Since opening in 1909, CGH has expanded to 20 locations, including Dixon, Fulton, Milledgeville, Morrison, Mount Carroll, Polo, Prophetstown, Rock Falls, Sterling and Walnut.