When the St. Andrews Emergency Department becomes an Urgent Care Center on October 1, it will feature the same highly qualified doctors and nurses and the same full range of diagnostic equipment and laboratory services.

What will change for walk-in patients are the hours, which will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the cost, which will drop by about 30 percent, and the wait time.

“It will be faster because the doctors who are on duty and the nurses who are on duty will not be tending to critically ill patients,” said Dr. Tim Fox, Medical Director of Lincoln County Healthcare Emergency Services.

The new Urgent Care Center will serve the needs of about 80 percent of the patients who now use the St. Andrews Emergency Department, while providing quicker service at a lower cost.

The other major change is that ambulances will take patients from the Boothbay area directly to larger nearby emergency departments that can offer critically ill patients the specialty services, such as on-call general and orthopedic surgery, and the specialized diagnostic equipment that are often needed for the most intensive cases.

The new Urgent Care Center is part of a series of changes at Lincoln County Healthcare facilities designed to make healthcare less expensive, more convenient and more focused on prevention.

Other changes include offering patients more access to preventative services at their primary care practice, such as a pharmacist at the Family Care Center to make sure patients understand how and when to take their medications and a nurse at the Family Care Center to help coordinate transitions from hospital to home, when gaps in care can put a patient at risk of medical setbacks.

While the Urgent Care Center will meet the needs of about 80 percent of those who use the existing Emergency Department, Dr. Fox said it is critical that people understand when to use the new Urgent Care Center and when they should call 911.

Most minor complaints, including minor allergic reactions, burns, coughs, cuts, joint pain, abdominal pain and fractures (without visible bone) are all appropriate for the new Urgent Care Center.

Symptoms such as shortness of breath, or chest pain, that could be associated with a heart attack, or symptoms such as loss of consciousness, sudden loss of vision, blurred vision or loss of ability to speak, which can be associated with a stroke, are signs a person should immediately call 911.

Severe bleeding or head trauma should also be treated at a full emergency department.

When in doubt, the safest thing to do is call 911.