Like pretty much everyone else who has ever dragged themselves or their children to the doctor’s office, Jennifer and Bryan Knepper have been there.

You sit for an hour and a half in the waiting room, with nothing to fill the time but playing Candy Crush Saga on your smartphone and flipping through last month’s People Magazine. Then, when you finally get called back, the doctor spends only five minutes with you before hurrying off to the next patient.

To Jennifer and Bryan Knepper, frustrating trips to the doctor like that happen all too often. To them, many health care providers seem to have forgotten one crucial aspect of delivering top-rate medical care: customer service. The Kneppers aim to be a part of the solution with Stat+MD Urgent Care, which they recently opened near Kimball Junction.

"We’re trying to take what we’ve seen as the best parts of health care," said Bryan Knepper, CEO of the clinic. "I think that delivering good health care — evidence-based health care and safe medicine — is something every practitioner has to do. But what I think isn’t being provided is better customer service. And we want to strive to that."

Stat+MD Urgent Care’s eClinic is one of the most unique ways the Kneppers plan to give patients a better experience. It allows patients to visit with doctors via video conference rather than coming into the office to be seen in person.

"That’s the highest level of customer service," said Jennifer Knepper, the clinic’s chief medical officer. "I’ve seen patients while they’re in the supermarket. It’s obviously for (less severe) illnesses, but people can get the care they need on their schedule."

The Kneppers hope to make visits better for those with more serious conditions — or those who simply prefer face-to-face interactions — as well. Patients can check in online to their appointments, then go about their business until their appointments are scheduled to begin.

It’s all about making a trip to the doctor as painless as possible.

"This side of Park City definitely has a big local population — people do a lot of shopping here, it’s a very busy and active community," Jennifer Knepper said. "People want to get back to their lives. They want to get treated, and they want to get back to their lives. So we want to integrate ourselves into the community so people can pop in and be seen quickly."

And once patients are taken back to be seen, Stat+MD Urgent Care is dedicated to ensuring they have the full attention of the doctor or practitioners. Jennifer Knepper said many clinics rush to see as many patients as possible, while Stat+MD Urgent Care’s only goal is to ensure each patient gets comprehensive care and has all of their concerns addressed.

"I think the patients feel that rush, and that makes them feel like they don’t want to come back," she said. "We want patients to feel like they are being heard. We want to cover all of their concerns and treat them appropriately."

As the name of the clinic suggests, Stat+MD Urgent Care specializes in ailments that are pressing but don’t require trips to the emergency room. But urgent care isn’t the only service the clinic plans to provide.

"We’ve found that a lot of our patients are looking for primary-care doctors," she said. "So we could really serve both communities — the urgent care, with the walk-in patients, as well as the primary care."

As well as the quick, quality care, patients will love Stat+MD Urgent Care because of its location near Kimball Junction, the Kneppers said. Realizing there was a need for one in the area is what spurred them into opening the clinic, and so far, their instincts have been proven right.

Karen Wellman, manager of the clinic, said patients have already told them how grateful they are for the clinic.

"We’re finding that a lot of patients come in for an injury or an illness, and then while they’re here, they say, ‘What else do you guys do?’" Wellman said. "So there’s clearly this gap where people need more than what the rest of the medical community is providing to them. We are hoping to fill that gap."

Stat+MD Urgent Care

statmdurgentcare.com