EVANS MILLS — Carthage Area Hospital no longer will offer urgent care services here, effective Wednesday.

The hospital announced Friday that the Evans Mills Family Health Center, 26121 Route 11, now will offer only primary care and pediatric services.

“The decision to discontinue urgent care services at our Evans Mills site is another example of our need to streamline operations and align resources to best serve the communities in and around Carthage,” interim CEO Adil Ameer said in a news release.

According to the release, urgent care patient records will remain on site and can be requested through the primary care office, which can be reached by calling 629-1304.

Richard A. Duvall, chief operating officer, said the Evans Mills site was the only urgent care clinic the hospital operates. He said the hospital operates a service similar to an urgent care, called fast track, in the emergency room at 1001 West St., Carthage.

Alternative urgent care services, run by Samaritan Medical Center, can be found at 26908 Independence Way.

This recent change is one of many the hospital has made this year to cut costs. In the spring, the hospital relinquished control of its Harrisville outreach clinic to Lewis County General Hospital, Lowville.

About the same time, the hospital announced it would close some of its school-based health centers, but after hospital officials met with school district officials throughout the summer, an agreement has been reached for services to be kept in schools.

“We’re consolidating our school-based clinics, and the way it’s going to happen is school-based clinics will be open on a part-time basis,” Mr. Duvall said. “We had slated closure for Edwards-Knox, Harrisville and in Clayton, but the schools appealed to us.”

The LaFargeville and Thousand Islands central school districts will share a provider, and the Edwards-Knox and Harrisville districts will share a provider. A provider who works in the hospital’s emergency department will share his or her time with the South Lewis Central School District’s clinic in Turin.

Other changes the hospital has made include the closure of its Sackets Harbor outreach clinic in May. Many patients have since transferred to the Adams outreach clinic.

“We’re seeing 20 to 25 patients a day now, whereas before we were seeing 15 to 19,” Mr. Duvall said. “We still have room to grow there in the practice.”

Carthage Area Hospital will continue to evaluate all programs and services in an effort to streamline operations, he said.

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