Nov 19, 2013 2 min read

Welcome to a new ME generation.

MedExpress has launched a corporate facelift, featuring a chic new look to the exterior and cozier atmosphere inside. The outdoor logo features ME in large white letters on an earth-brown background, accompanied by the word MedExpress in white.

“We’re focusing on providing a warm and welcoming environment inside and out,” said Victor Starcher, M.D., senior vice president of medical affairs for the chain based in Morgantown, W.Va.

Interior changes, he said, were “minimal” but necessary.

“We call our waiting areas reception areas,” Starcher said. “Patients don’t wait. Most patients are in and out (of Med Express) in less than an hour.”

Patients don’t need an appointment at urgent-care clinics, which and are more convenient than a hospital emergency room.

“The role of MedExpress and other urgent-care centers is to fulfill needs,” Starcher said.

MedExpress started its rebranding effort Nov. 11 and has completed work at 60 of the company’s 119 clinics, including the three in Washington County: South Strabane and Peters townships and Canonsburg. There are none in Greene County, but that may change.

“We’re always looking at Washington County and Greene County,” Starcher said. “We’ve been strategic but aggressive in our growth. We go into areas that need further access (to medical care).”

The company has gone into nine states – Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee and Florida. It is experiencing a growth spurt, with about 40 sites opening over the past year and a half and 15 more due by spring.

Starcher was interviewed recently at the South Strabane clinic, the first MedExpress in Pennsylvania and second companywide. The Northgate Plaza site opened in October 2004, three years after the initital one in Morgantown.

There are now 50 statewide, 29 nine of them in the southwest corner.