UMC to open its first urgent care clinic in East El Paso, another planned for Westside
by Priscilla Totiyapungprasert
May 22, 2025
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University Medical Center of El Paso is set to open its first urgent care center Tuesday, May 27 in the Eastlake neighborhood near Horizon City. The center is part of the hospital’s expansion into urgent care services, with another center on the Westside in the early stages of planning.
Though El Paso’s population growth has stagnated, developmental sprawl has shifted residents to the eastern edges of the county. The new UMC Urgent Care, 12261-C Eastlake Blvd., will offer residents an alternative to the emergency department for conditions that are not life threatening – and possibly relieve the volume of patients at UMC’s East Emergency Department on Joe Battle Boulevard.
The 4,200-square-foot urgent care center has 10 private treatment rooms and will be staffed with at least one nurse practitioner every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m, UMC spokesperson Estefania Morgan said in an email. It is located about 3 miles away from the next closest center, the UCare Urgent Care Clinic in Horizon City.
The $1.6 million center came from UMC’s capital funds for fiscal year 2025. The cost includes professional fees, construction, medical equipment, furniture and information technology, Morgan said. UMC didn’t respond to questions about annual operating costs or how many patients they anticipated might be served at the new center.
In the November 2024 election, El Paso County voters approved a $396.6 million bond to fund additional UMC facilities, including the building of a new urgent care center on the Westside. UMC plans to select the architect for the West El Paso emergency department and urgent care center this summer before developing the project scope and timeline, Morgan said.
Urgent care clinics tend to have shorter wait times and lower costs for similar treatment than a visit to the emergency department, Morgan said. Since emergency departments prioritize the most critical cases first, patients with less severe issues may experience longer wait times and feel overwhelmed if there’s a high volume of patients, she said.
Unlike many primary care clinics, most urgent care clinics operate on a walk-in basis, have extended hours and are open on the weekends. Common conditions treated at urgent care clinics include sprains, cuts needing stitches, dislocated fingers and minor fractures that require x-rays, respiratory infections, digestive issues, earaches and ear infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
Patients who go to the emergency department have more serious emergencies, Morgan said. These conditions include heart attacks, strokes, major trauma or bleeding, difficulty breathing or unconsciousness.
Since 2018, six urgent care centers have opened and four have closed in El Paso County, according to data provided by the national Urgent Care Association. The organization did not respond to El Paso Matters’ request for comment.
One 2021 study found that having an open urgent care center in a ZIP code reduced the total number of emergency department visits by residents in that zipcode by 17%, with a further reduction of 21% to 29% for uninsured and Medicaid patient visits, respectively. More than half of UMC’s patient population is uninsured, underinsured or enrolled in Medicaid.
