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Healthcare You Need in Your Community: CareRite Now at Inserra Supermarkets

Joey Wahler (Host): Bergen New Bridge Medical Center has partnered with Inserra Supermarkets, offering healthcare services inside local ShopRite stores. So, we're discussing what CareRite Now has to offer.

Our guests, Karen Collins, a nurse practitioner and provider at CareRite Now in Wallington, and Beth Schachtele, she's an Ambulatory Care Practice Manager at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. This is Wellness Waves, a podcast from Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. Thanks for joining us.

Beth Schactele: Thank you so much for having us.

Karen Collins: Thanks for Thanks for having me. me

Joey Wahler (Host): Great to have you on board. So, let's start with you, Karen. Launching these CareRite Now facilities actually resulted from a recent community health needs assessment that was done last year. Tell us about the information you got that led to all of this.

Karen Collins: The information was that there are people that are in our communities that are not willing to go far and wide. So, it was our decision to bring healthcare to their doorstep, which is very convenient, very accessible, and very available.

Joey Wahler (Host): So, in other words, people that you polled felt that they were having to travel too far and would take advantage of something closer by where they live then, huh?

Karen Collins: Yes, something that's really accessible. Especially coming to the supermarket, they can kill two birds with one stone, shop and have their healthcare needs taken care of.

Joey Wahler (Host): Sure. And of course, most of us do our food shopping on a pretty regular basis, at least once a week for many of us. So Beth, having said that, that's resulted in this partnership between Bergen New Bridge and Inserra Supermarkets, as we touched on at the top. They're the operators of ShopRite stores in the area. Tell us how that partnership came about.

Beth Schactele: Yeah. So just like Karen had mentioned, people were looking for their convenience of healthcare. So, when Deb and Bergen New Bridge approached the Inserra Supermarkets, the whole concept was convenience. So, convenience to the consumer, convenience to the patient. And what better convenient way and comfortable way for somebody to go to the ShopRite, to your local food store that you do once a week and then be able to get the physical for the kids, get a flu shot, get your COVID vaccine done, and things like that. So, having the accessibility of the food store, and healthcare right in one place, I think it was a match made in heaven for both parties.

Joey Wahler (Host): So, Karen, you've got these stores now with these medical facilities, CareRite Now in Wallington and in New Milford. And you offer a wide range of medical services, so what would a typical visit there look like for a patient?

Karen Collins: A patient will come in to clear what their needs are, and we will get them registered in a very timely fashion. And then, they will see me, of course. First, they would approach the receptionist at the desk and we'll do a quick intake, including insurance and the particulars that they need to get, get that out of the way. And then, they'll see me pretty quickly and expediently, I should say.

Joey Wahler (Host): What would you say, Karen, are-- we'll get into a few more specifics in a moment, but give us just sort of a general overview of what's offered there in terms of services.

Karen Collins: Sure. Wellness checks, acute illness visits, we do see. We have the capability of doing EKGs on them, anybody who needs that. Vaccinations, of course. We do have COVID vaccinations available, and tests. Flu tests and vaccines. We have a wide variety of vaccines, tetanus vaccines, vaccines to keep you updated, meningitis for the kids going back to school and so on. We are able to do blood tests. So, we have quite a few people that walked in, their doctors have given them scripts to go get their annual blood test done, we have that availability. We can do physicals because we specialize in convenience and availability, the kids getting their annual camp physicals, school physicals, sports physicals. We, of course, partner with New Bridge Health, so we can refer for specialties over there. So, we have that capability. And of course, walk-ins are accepted too. That's our specialty right there.

Joey Wahler (Host): Gotcha. So Beth, picking up on that, facilities like this have started to become more prevalent in recent years, more people taking advantage of them. What are a couple of the things you offer that maybe people would be surprised to realize are available at a facility right in their supermarket?

Beth Schactele: I think that's something that separates us from your urgent cares or things like that, is that it's very convenient, in the supermarket where, like I said before, everybody's at least going once a week. Everybody needs to go food shopping. Everybody needs to make that trip. And usually, you're going to the ShopRite that's closest to your home. So, you're not traveling far, you're going somewhere that's very convenient to you. How more convenient could it be that there's a facility there that can perform an EKG; that if you're not feeling well, it's right down the road and you're able to see a high-level nurse practitioner as well as you can establish primary care there?

So, these nurse practitioners also have the availability, like Karen said, to refer you back to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, where we have 26 different specialties. You can see a cardiologist, you can be referred to an endocrinologist and all stay within the same system. So, it's really any healthcare when and where you need it. And that's our little tagline that we always go by. But it's true, you can do a whole variety of things right out of these Inserra Supermarkets and CareRites. I don't think that there's anything better than those urgent cares can't really refer you to something that's within their system that would be more than just that initial visit. So, Karen and the other nurse practitioners that we have can establish that care with you and you're going to be seeing them over and over again. And they get to know you and you get to know them and you become more comfortable with that provider that is there. So, I think that's really something that's special and unique about the CareRite.

Joey Wahler (Host): Absolutely. So Karen, getting back to you, this was touched on briefly a moment ago, but just to clarify, These care right now, facilities can be visited either by appointment or with walk-ins as well. Is that right?

Karen Collins: That's correct. we welcome patients walking in. And we also encourage appointments, so that we can better able to see our patients. So, we are available for appointments and we do welcome walk-ins.

Joey Wahler (Host): And also, I wanted to ask you, Karen, about payment because, just to clarify again, you accept insurance as well as payment out-of-pocket, right?

Karen Collins: We do. We accept about 99% of insurances that are out there, I understand. And so, the out-of-pocket, we haven't seen much of that yet because we are new, the facility. But most of the people that come in, we do accept their insurance. Everybody that I have done, we do accept insurance. So, there wasn't much need to get out-of-pocket to do anything here.

Joey Wahler (Host): Gotcha. Beth, let me go back to something you mentioned a moment ago in terms of referrals. If someone is seen at one of these CareRite Now facilities and they require more specialized medical attention, as you pointed out, you can provide referrals to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. What about the importance and the comfort that comes along with that, having people know that if you check them out and they need further care at that next level, you're not just going to send them out to find it on their own, that you can hook them right up like that all under one roof?

Beth Schactele: Absolutely. So, if the patient and Karen feels that you do need specialized treatment or be referred back to our hospital, we can make that appointment right there before you even leave our facility. So, our front desk representatives have the access to schedule appointments back at the Paramus location where all of our specialists have clinic hours. And for Wallington, it's I think maybe like a 20-minute drive, so it's not too far away, although it is not as convenient as the CareRites, but you are staying within the same system. So if you go to see the specialist and you do come back to Karen, she can review the note that that doctor wrote, and everybody's in touch. Everybody's able to work together and be able to refer and really offer the best care that they can for that patient because you're seeing the providers that are in touch daily.

Karen Collins: And I just want to add, that's what sets us apart from the other facilities, urgent care or so, that we do have the capability for high-level specialties so we can have continuity of care to each and every person that comes in.

Beth Schactele: I think that's something that's also very unique about Bergen New Bridge Medical Center is that, nowadays too, a light has been shined on behavioral health. So, not only are we a medical facility, but we have an entire psychiatric portion into our hospital as well. So if you are having mental health issues or you do need to be referred to somebody that isn't treating you medically, physically, they're treating your mind and all of those issues there, again within the same facility. So, we have the medical aspect as well as the behavioral health or addiction medicine that you would need.

Joey Wahler (Host): So, just a few other things. Karen, besides the Wallington and New Milford locations that are already up and running, which we've mentioned, any plans for expansion of a CareRite Now to other locations as well in the near future?

Karen Collins: Yes. I believe Beth can speak more to that, but I do know that there are several other stores that are coming down the pipeline. There're a few scheduled in a few months to open in different facilities, in uh, different towns. So, we are looking forward to expanding our footprint in doing that.

Beth Schactele: Our next two locations that we are planning to open are in Hillsdale and Hackensack. And then, further from there, we are going to do Palisades Park and Lodi. So, there are four more that should open very soon.

Joey Wahler (Host): Wow. Okay. So, that's a big expansion coming on the horizon. And then to wrap things up, finally, for you, Karen, since you are the one in the trenches, so to speak, as people have come in and tried this facility out and given you feedback, what are one or two of the things that they're saying to you that they seem to be most excited and most pleased with so far?

Karen Collins: They love the convenience and the availability of healthcare right at their doorstep. They can come in and take advantage and get high level, high quality healthcare right here, right while they're doing other things. I mean, they're not going out of their way to do it, but it's right here available. And it's convenient in terms of they're not sitting down in an emergency room waiting for six hours or so. They're getting treated in 15, 20 minutes. And they're getting the same high-level care and referrals if needed as they need to do that. So, I get great feedback. People that we have seen here love it. They love the convenience. They love the opportunity to come in and get everything done. It's a one-stop-shop, so to speak, healthcare done and their physical needs done and their temporal needs done. So, it's great overall for the patient, they have had great experience. The facilities are great. The layout is absolutely perfect and it's conducive for good patient care relationship.

Joey Wahler (Host): Folks, we trust that you are now more familiar with CareRite Now. Karen Collins and Beth Schachtele, good luck, continued success with it, and thanks so much again.

Beth Schactele: Thank you. This was wonderful. Thank you so much.

Joey Wahler (Host): Same here. And for more information, please visit newbridge health.org/health hyphen services slash care Wright, r i t e, hyphen now slash If you found this podcast helpful, please do Sharon on your social media. And thanks again for listening to Wellness Waves, a podcast from Bergen Newbridge Medical Center, hoping your health is good health.

I'm Joey Waller.