The Neighborcare Health clinic opened on Sept. 26 to hundreds of phone calls, and providers there saw more than 200 patients during the first week.

“It’s been wonderful to take care of our neighbors again, and the patients have been incredibly grateful and supportive,” said clinic Medical Director Dr. Jessica Wesch late last Friday afternoon.

On the first day, more than 400 patients called the clinic, an amount that rivals the number of calls that one of Neighborcare’s largest clinics — with some 40 providers — receives in a day, according to Mary Schilder, Neighborcare’s director of marketing communications. She added that the pent up need for medical services has shown itself in the number of people seeking care, and Wesch said that need has been clear as well in how ill some patients were. Some of the problems that developed were preventable, she added, but because of lack of medical attention, the problems worsened.

“They are sicker than they would have been had we been there,” she said. “If they had had care, they would not have gotten as sick. … Some had hospital and ER visits that they would not have had because of lack of care.”

Last Monday morning, islander Derrek Marcley was among those patients who had experienced a trip to the Harborview Medical Center emergency room while the clinic was closed.

He recently developed an issue with a nerve in his lower back that is causing difficulty in one of his legs, and it became so severe he traveled to Harborview, he said. When he was released, he was supposed to follow up with a primary care doctor — but he did not have one. They referred him to one in West Seattle, but it would have taken him two weeks to get in, and relying on friends seemed not only expensive, but simply not realistic.

Clinic staff was able to work him in on Monday, he said, despite it being the busy opening day, and now he is set to receive his care on the island.

“I am definitely pleased the clinic is open or I would be having to go into the city, and I do not know that I could get to all my appointments,” he said.

In the coming days and weeks, islanders who want to receive care at the clinic for any reason — including obtaining medication refills, receiving referrals to a speciality care and using the after-hours nurse line — need to schedule an appointment and be enrolled in the Neighborcare system. Both Schilder and Wesch stressed the importance of doing so.

“Simply sending medical records to Neighborcare Health from a previous provider, such as CHI Franciscan or Fulton Family Medicine, does not automatically establish you as a patient at Neighborcare Health,” Schilder said.

Wesch added that the step of being seen at the clinic is essential.

“Our medical malpractice is tied to the site, and we must see patients here before we can provide care,” she said, acknowledging the challenges of the process. “It is confusing and frustrating and going to take awhile.”

Meanwhile, patients who have yet to request their medical records from a previous provider can fill out a form at the Vashon clinic, and Neighborcare Health will submit the request to the other provider, Schilder said.

Currently, appointments are being made for the end of October and as late as December. The clinic keeps a number of same-day appointments available for serious illnesses or injuries that require immediate attention, but Wesch stressed that the clinic provides primary care and is not an urgent care clinic. She strongly encourages people to make appointments, even for acute needs, and not simply walk in, hoping to be seen. Because demand is so high for services, there are few cancellations or people who do not show up for their appointments, making it difficult to work people into the schedule.

As expected, there have been some challenges involved with the extremely short time frame Neighborcare was working under to open the clinic.

There have some technical glitches with the phones, Schilder said, and Neighborcare is working to resolve those with the vendor when they arise. There were additional challenges with the after-hours line in the first week, but those have been resolved.

Additionally, some people learned that their insurance company was not yet taking their provider. Schilder noted that is a process that simply takes time.

“These are the kind of things that would be taken care of in the months leading up to a clinic opening, but we had only seven weeks — not to mention that our providers were not all on board until just a couple of weeks ago,” she said.

She suggested that people who had this kind of difficulty wait a few weeks and check their insurance plan again. If they need to be seen right away, they should pick a provider at the clinic who is listed in their insurance and change providers later if they wish.

Despite the challenges, which Wesch said included each of the staff members learning a new computer system, she spoke highly of all those involved.

“The team has been wonderful: The front desk staff have put their whole hearts into welcoming patients, and the back office staff, the medical assistants and nurse Susan, have put their whole hearts into making patients comfortable and helping them understand how Neighborcare works,” she said.

Still, Schilder stressed, all the staff members are new — and Neighborcare is scheduling accordingly — more slowly for now, and increasing in the coming months.

“This is a new clinic and a whole new team, and it will take some time for everyone to get up to speed,” she said. “This time is important to ensure quality care. We’ll increase capacity over the next couple of months, and by the end of the year, the teams will be up to full capacity, which means more appointments will be available.”