SEASIDE – Seaside Urgent Care is closing its doors Friday.

Physicians Mark and JoAnn Stefanelli opened the urgent care clinic in March 2007 hoping to relieve pressure upon local emergency rooms by treating urgent minor injuries. The clinic also provided care in the form of physicals, treatment for workers’ compensation cases and injuries from motor vehicle accidents. The clinic accepted walk-ins as well as scheduled appointments.

Fees for the clinic were limited to $100, unless test expenses pushed the cost higher.

In recent months, a spate of new or expanded clinics have opened on the North Coast. These have included the expansion of the Park Building in Astoria and the opening of the new Columbia Memorial Hospital Health and Wellness Pavilion in Astoria, opening of the Providence North Coast Clinic in Warrenton, and the expansion of walk-in services at Providence Seaside Hospital in Seaside.

Dr. JoAnn Stefanelli said she believed the expansion of other medical providers in the area had, in small part, contributed to the closure of the urgent-care clinic.

“We can’t stay open anymore,” said Stefanelli. She said both she and her husband were “very disillusioned with medicine right now” and that part of the problem stems largely from non-payment of deductibles rather than non-payment from the uninsured.

Earlier this year, the clinic appeared to be in the clear, seeing more than the 30-patient per day average it needed to remain open, but those numbers have been on the decline in recent months.

“I really believe it’s the economy,” said Stefanelli. “It’s the co-pays. If patients are asked to pay any money, they don’t come. People are really hurting and we feel for them.”

She said the non-payment from people with high deductibles was really the “beef” she and Dr. Mark Stefanelli had with the closing of the clinic.

According to JoAnn Stefanelli, after 18 months of serving 5,500 in 10,100 visits, the clinic had approximately $75,000 in unpaid deductibles.

“The margins in this business are very, very small and the overhead is extraordinarily high,” said JoAnn Stefanelli.