Locally owned urgent care expands to treat adults in second Syracuse-area location

Heather Drake Bianchi stands in one of the patient rooms at Drakos Pediatric Urgent Care, in Clay Medical Center. Sept. 15, 2023.

Cicero, NY — A local company that operates a pediatric urgent care in Clay is expanding next month with a new location in Cicero.

The new Drakos Urgent Care facility will treat people of all ages. It will be located at 5586 Legionnaire Drive, off Route 31.

Drakos’s founder, Heather Bianchi, opened a pediatric urgent care last year in the Clay Medical Center, 8100 Oswego Road (Route 57), in Clay. That center has treated more than 3,000 children in seven months.

The new facility will cater to both children and adults. Together with the pediatric urgent care, Drakos will employ more than 40 medical providers, nurses and support staff. Part-time staff at the pediatric location will become full-time. The Cicero location will have up to 10 new staffers, the company said.

The new 3,000-square-foot facility will include laboratory testing capabilities, onsite x-rays and other services.

The Cicero location will be open until midnight, seven days a week. It will cater to problems that arise after primary care offices have closed. It is expected to accept the same major insurances as the pediatric urgent care, including Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The new Drakos Urgent Care will compete with the WellNow Urgent Care chain, which has been in the news recently for its dispute with Excellus. That impasse, which started Jan. 1, has left thousands without in-network WellNow coverage.

The urgent care market also includes facilities in Fulton and Central Square run by Oswego Health, an urgent care in Skaneateles run by Auburn Memorial Hospital and another pediatric urgent care at Upstate Community General Hospital. Upstate also has a bone and joint urgent care, as does Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists.

Bianchi says that urgent care caters to people who don’t need to be in the emergency room, but aren’t able to see a primary doctor right away.

“That’s the reason we’re open after hours – after primary care offices are closed,” Bianchi said after the pediatric urgent care opened last year. “We’re that middle step, when someone needs to see the doctor, needs to see them tonight.”

The Drakos Pediatric Urgent Care website has a list of accepted insurance carriers, as well as out-of-pocket costs for those not covered by insurance. That information is expected to be the same for the Cicero urgent care when it opens next month.

Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at [email protected] or (315) 470-6070.

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