NORTH JACKSON, Ohio – The timing couldn’t have been any better.
As Steward Health Care – now Insight – began to shutter its urgent care locations across the Mahoning Valley, Dr. Supreet Dhaliwal, the former medical director of the health system’s urgent care and WorkMED programs, became concerned her patients and company clients would be left without access to proper care.
One by one, Steward’s three urgent care and occupational health offices in Boardman, Warren and Austintown closed. “I was really very worried,” she said. The Austintown location on Ohltown Road was the last to shut down, closing March 26. “We have almost 280 companies, some of which are big clients.”
In a reversal of fortune, Salem Regional Medical Center provided the solution: outfit in record time a building it owns at 10850 Mahoning Ave. and convert it into a new occupational health clinic run by Dhaliwal, providing a near seamless transition from Steward’s closure.
Dhaliwal had earlier approached Salem Regional and inquired about opportunities to expand its occupational and urgent care programs in Mahoning County. It so happened that Salem Regional owned a former physician’s office that was no longer in use, and the partnership quickly materialized.
Moreover, Dhaliwal was able to bring two of her employees to the new site, she said. “They’re all very talented and very experienced,” she said. “It’s very hard to train people in occupational.”
The new health clinic – SRMC Occupational Health – started seeing patients during the second week of May, less than two months after Steward closed its Austintown location. “We are so happy,” Dhaliwal said. Salem Regional hosted an open house Monday to introduce the new facility to the public.
SRMC Occupational Health specializes in engaging with employers and employees to perform workplace-related testing, assessments and work-injury management, said Dr. Anita Hackstedde, Salem Regional president and CEO.
“We’re excited to expand access to occupational health care in this region, and we look forward to partnering with the area’s business community to support the well-being of their workforce,” Hackstedde said in a statement.
Dhaliwal added that the clinic would treat worker injuries and provide employee physicals, screenings and services such as drug testing.
“For example, for lacerations, we have a procedure room, and I can do that, and X-ray is coming,” Dhaliwal said.
The North Jackson site is Salem Regional’s second location in Mahoning County. In February 2024, the hospital system opened a new primary care and imaging center in Canfield.
“We’ve expanded outside our traditional hospital care because we’ve seen such tremendous growth in this area, in particular for occupational medicine,” said Deborah Pietrzak, vice president of marketing and planning. “Many employers have reached out – this is a high-demand service, and there’s a tremendous need.”
Plans are now in the works to add urgent care services to the Mahoning Avenue clinic, Pietrzak said. That project should be finished in August.
“This area is underserved in terms of medical services, so that is a natural growth expansion,” she said. “We feel that for the people in this area, it will be a nice way that we can meet their health care needs.”
Pictured at top: Dr. Supreet Dhaliwal.