Dr. Jonathan Kerley sees patient Sidney Beal about a sore throat at Fast Access’ sixth and newest location near the Signal Mountain Walmart on Thursday.A local primary and urgent health care provider is expanding in the Chattanooga region with a sixth location in North Chattanooga.
Fast Access Healthcare has opened an office on Signal Mountain Road in the shopping plaza adjacent to Walmart. The 10-year-old company is owned by Jonathan Kerley, a Chattanooga native and doctor, and offers both primary and urgent care to about 30,000 patients annually.
Kerley started the company as a walk-in clinic after working as an emergency room doctor, when he realized there was a need for a third option to offer care to patients who couldn’t see a primary care doctor but also didn’t need emergency care.
“So we started as a walk-in clinic, but then after several weeks patients started asking, ‘Can we come back?'” he said. “And we said of course, because the primary care fits right in with the services we wanted to offer.”
Now, the majority of the practice’s patients list Fast Access as their primary care physician, Kerley said. The company employs three full-time doctors, two part-time doctors and eight physician assistants, with 35 total employees.