Urgent Care In Tucson

A surgeon and a physician assistant who took care of injured troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are now using their emergency treatment skills at a new urgent care cetner they’ve opened in north central Tucson.

Dr. David Orringer, a surgeon, and Davidson Hall, a physician assistant, partnered to open Velo Med Urgent Care in a 6,400-square-foot building at 50 E. Croydon Park Road, off North Stone Avenue a block south of River Road. The urgent care business is using 4,400 square feet of space and Orringer and Hall plan to rent the remaining 2,000 square feet to a tenant.

Although trained as a surgeon, Dr. Orringer said he had never considered getting involved with an urgent care facility until after treating wounded military personnel.

"A lot of what you get in the field is bare bones operations," Dr. Orringer said. "You’re treating people with few resources and so you have to be prepared to see anything and everything — and you have so many guys depending on you. So urgent care is the same except in a little more of a controlled environment, with better equipment and better resources and a fully trained staff."

Orringer believes his military experience now serves him and Hall well as they see "pretty much anything and everything." He realized while in Iraq and Afghanistan that handling emergency treatment never gets boring and has a component of excitement about it that he thrives on.
The building was designed by Edward Marley, of Swaim Associates LTD Architects. Orringer said Marley, like himself, is a cycling enthusiast and the clinic’s reception area has been designed in the pattern of a bicycle.

An accomplished classical pianist and opera singer who once considered that as a career, Dr. Orringer achieved the rank of major and served as the medical director for the Air Force’s Combat Search and Rescue mission in Iraq and Afghanistan for four months each location before leaving the Air Force in 2007. Hall was a combat medic in Iraq during Desert Storm and also served with the 82nd Airborne and as a Special Forces Medic.

Orringer was awarded the Sikorsky Rescue Award, given to those involved in the rescue of someone in combat.

According to the Sikorsky website, the Winged-S Rescue Award Program was created in 1950 to honor all those who perform rescues flying a Sikorsky helicopter. "Through this award, we gratefully acknowledge the humanitarian efforts of all pilots and crewmembers who put themselves in harm’s way to save others and fulfill company founder Igor Sikorsky’s vision of the helicopter as a unique and powerful life-saving instrument," the website says.

Orringer and Hall met while practicing at another urgent care facility in Tucson and decided to open Velo Med Urgent Care facility.

The facility, which employees 16, including two other part-time physicians, has five exam rooms and a sixth which also is used for minor surgical procedures. There also is an X ray suite, a lab and a limited onsite pharmacy.

The clinic specializes in sports or work injuries, physical exams, lacerations, sprains, rashes, allergies, colds and coughs and sore throats and walk-ins are encouraged.

Originally from New England, where he studied classical piano at Dartmouth, Dr. Orringer said he "really fell in love with Tucson" and decided to stay here. Because there are not enough primary care physicians and emergency rooms are overcrowded here in Tucson, Dr. Orringer said he felt that his new clinic could offer a good intermediate solution for patients.

His sole disadvantage in Tucson is that he doesn’t get much opportunity to use his classical piano and opera training. "It’s mostly just singing in the car," he laughed.