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New UPMC GoHealth urgent care center part of regional efforts

Amy Meister, middle, cuts the ribbon during a ceremony at UPMC GoHealth Urgent Care in Butler on Friday, July 25, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle Rob

Butler Township’s new UPMC GoHealth Urgent Care center is being touted by UPMC leaders as a commitment to community residents’ health and well-being.

The latest expansion of UPMC’s apparatus, the urgent care center is one of 81 rebranded locations the health care systems are now running in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

“This center exemplifies our commitment to the region and caring for the loved ones we so graciously serve,” Dave Patton, president of UPMC Jameson and UPMC Horizon, said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday.

This was one of several events that have been held in Western Pennsylvania promoting the urgent care centers now under UPMC and GoHealth operations. In a news release, UPMC said the new urgent care locations were being opened to provide convenient access to high-quality, on-demand health care.

“The centers incorporate advances in technology and GoHealth’s innovative operations with premiere health care from UPMC’s credentialed clinicians. The new UPMC-GoHealth Urgent Care joint venture provides a seamless connection to UPMC with integrated electronic health records and easy referral to specialized medical services. The partnership also brings more ambulatory services, such as primary care, women’s health, orthopedics and radiology, to the communities that need them,” the release said.

According to its website, GoHealth Urgent Care currently has over 400 urgent care centers nationwide.

The new urgent care center is at 256 New Castle Road. It was previously a MedExpress and made the transition under UPMC and GoHealth last month.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, UPMC leaders emphasized the importance of people living everywhere deserving high quality medical care. Amy Meister, UPMC’s president of community and ambulatory services, said bringing health care access closer to those who don’t live within major metropolitan areas, like Pittsburgh, is a big reason for locations being opened in towns like Butler.

“Our scientific advancements have made it so we can treat a lot of things not under the roof of a hospital. So you don’t need to drive all the way to Pittsburgh for care,” Meister said. “What we really wanted to do was to have places of treatment where people can come and get their own treatment in their communities. Let’s get you back to your life faster.”

With an ongoing crisis surrounding rural access to health care across the country, Meister said it’s important to focus on making sure people living in rural communities and small towns have proper access to resources provided at urgent care centers.

“We know with a lot of different changes that have gone on in health care, it’s so hard what’s happened with a lot of non-suburban, rural communities, we want to make sure we do our best to serve everybody’s needs as best as we can, and really bring UPMC’s world-class, quality care outside of major metropolitan areas,” Meister said.

Robert Malizia, regional president of GoHealth Urgent Care, said its initiative with UMPC is its 12th partnership with a major health system.

Malizia said UPMC and GoHealth will maintain a “unified standard of care” at the new urgent care centers.

“To be frank, our health systems, they have so much to manage, and so much that’s bigger than urgent care. It’s really hard to focus on something that’s a specialty. So it allows us to really bring top notch operations to help with our systems,” Malizia said. “Because we have a large footprint we can expand fairly rapidly when we identify if there’s gaps between here and Hermitage, where there is an opportunity to put something in.”

Malizia said the urgent care center will continue accepting all major insurance plans UPMC currently accepts.

David Patton, left, Amy Meister and Robert Malizia talk before a ribbon-cutting at UPMC GoHealth Urgent Care in Butler on Friday, July 25, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle

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