MoGo: An act of prescience
Developing and establishing MoGo — Montage on the Go — was an act of prescience. Montage Health’s urgent care clinics opened in Monterey in March, in Marina in April, and in Carmel in October of 2020, just in time to treat patients experiencing minor illness and injury outside the hospital setting during an unprecedented pandemic.
While practitioners had spent months training to provide urgent-care services to the community, once COVID-19 came to Monterey County, MoGo retrained staff to follow pandemic protocols in receiving and treating patients to enable everyone to feel safe to come in for care.
"Even during a pandemic, people get injured or sick with something other than covid," says Chris Stegge, chief operating officer for MoGo. "We needed to be prepared to treat patients, while not exposing them to anything other than what brought them through the door."
MoGo PROCEDURE SUITE
Now, since the summer season is coinciding with a less-restrictive status related to pandemic protocols, people are venturing back outside to enjoy an active-outdoor lifestyle. This typically means more bug bites, bee stings, sprains and strains, bumps and bruises, ticks, and poison oak.
MoGo is ready and waiting to evaluate and treat minor injuries and afflictions, and to assess and triage more serious illness or injury before referring patients to the Emergency department at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.
"In establishing MoGo," says Stegge, "we were going for a different look and experience than traditional urgent care clinics. Once greeted at the door, a patient is brought directly into an exam room, if available, where the registration process takes place in private, and then care is administered."
If a patient does wait briefly in the lobby, they do so in a fresh, comfortable "living room" setting, with coffee, tea, hot chocolate,
and bottled water. Some patients have likened the space to a
relaxing spa lobby.
MoGo X-RAY SUITE
Although a satellite to the hospital, says Stegge, MoGo provides clinical staff — a medical assistant, licensed vocational nurse, and radiological technician — who can perform X-rays, process visit-related lab work, and administer medications on site. All sometimes critical when it comes to summer mishaps.
"If a patient is unsure where to go for medical attention," he says, "they can start with MoGo, and we can advise them on the care they need — especially on weekends or after hours, when they can’t contact their doctor or other healthcare providers."
CARMEL
26135 Carmel Rancho Boulevard, Suite B-1
MARINA
2930 2nd Avenue, Suite 120
MONTEREY
2020 Del Monte Avenue, Suite B
MoGo is ready and waiting, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 365 days a year.
Patients can call, walk in, or make a reservation online at mogourgentcare.org.
