Nurse practitioner leaves hospital to open clinic

Nurse practitioner Laura McKinnis became disillusioned with the health care system after practicing emergency medicine for 20 years at area hospitals. She will soon be opening an independent walk-in clinic in Grafton for people seeking a low-cost alternative for medical care.

“Health care has gone to this corporate-medicine model and I felt like there was this decline in the way we were able to take care of patients,” she said. “It felt like the insurance and hospital groups put more and more restrictions and limitations on us.”

Oasis Healthcare will open at 1505 Wisconsin Ave. the first week of August. In May, McKinnis began seeing patients at their homes, and she has been offering telemedicine appointments when necessary.

“It’s challenging to really provide good care without a physical exam available, especially for what I do in urgent care,” she said. “There are a lot of sick visits and injuries.”

McKinnis said the clinic will function similar to an urgent care clinic, treating minor trauma injuries like sprains, fractures and lacerations. She will also offer general physical examinations to children and adults. 

“My mindset for the clinic is to help the acutely ill and injured because that’s what I’ve done, but I will certainly do the school physicals and kids and adults wellness exams,” she said. 

Oasis Healthcare will provide the same level of care as an urgent care except for X-rays, which will take place at the Froedtert Center for Diagnostic Imaging in Mequon. 

“We have a contract with them where they will get that X-ray done. Everything else will be done in-house,” she said.

McKinnis expects most of her clientele will be from Ozaukee County and surrounding communities such as Glendale. She also wants to tap into local small businesses to set up a health plan for employees.

“The target market is the small business owner who doesn’t carry insurance or has high deductibles,” McKinnis said. “I talked to a lot of people who want to offer their employees some type of plan, but they can’t afford a $50,000 price tag or more for a couple employees.”

McKinnis said a typical urgent care or emergency room bill can range from $900 to $1,600. At Oasis Healthcare there is a flat $150 rate for a general exam with additional costs for lab work, imaging, medication or vaccines. 

She said she doesn’t accept insurance to avoid the subsidizing of care through inflated billing practices, instead taking cash, credit cards or payments through a health savings account. 

“I was thinking, what if we could take out all of the waste in the system and got the cost down to something that was reasonable and just do it as old-school medicine, which is the transaction between patient and provider,” she said.

McKinnis began considering starting her own clinic a couple years ago and in January decided to pull the trigger. She said the hardest part was leaving an established health care system, but her motivation to help people who can’t afford the care they need drove her.

“There has been this fear of leaving the known and entering the unknown. Obviously, the system itself is still broken, and you can’t fix it from within because I’ve tried,” she said. “I realized the only way to fix it is to leave the system altogether and start over, and I think this is the way.”

Since she started seeing patients, McKinnis said she has realized she made the right decision.

“People have been coming out of the woodwork, saying, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for. This is what I want,’” she said. “I’ve talked to a lot of adults who haven’t seen a doctor in 10 years. I think this will grow.”

McKinnis, a Town of Grafton resident, said she wanted to set up shop in Grafton because of its central location in the county, but finding a site was a tedious process before she discovered an 1,100-square-foot suite at the 1505 Apartments complex. 

“I wanted to be somewhere where there is high-volume visibility, which is by the highway, but the cost led us down a different road,” she said. “Some other (buildings) in Grafton that I found were great, but they were older and were not ADA accessible.”

At the clinic, McKinnis will have assistance from a nurse and medical technician who will both be working part time. Depending on the demand, McKinnis is open to hiring more employees.

“I want to give myself six months. If the volume picks up quickly, I would be thrilled to bring on more advanced practice providers,” she said. 

She also wants to eventually open up more clinics in other communities such as Port Washington, West Bend and Sheboygan.

“In the end, we want to provide care for people who are struggling to come in,” McKinnis said. “We want to make health care affordable and practical for our clients.”