Asisa Urgent Care, in Monticello! - The Perlowitz Show

We're in Monticello by Assisi, 353 East Broadway. Dr. Zelen, people come from all over the Catskills just to see you. How did you earn that reputation? >> Well, hopefully I don't meet anyone. We only meet a simple list. That's first of all. But you try doing the best for each patient with a care for each patient with a little bit of heart, a little bit of you know, neshama. Neshama use, you know, do what's best in each case is is different, but we always try, you know, doing the right thing. >> Could you earned a name? People come from all over. Everybody knows stitches, Dr. Zelen. Oh, shots, Dr. Zelen is the best when it comes to that. The kids love him. >> that. >> So, look at the parking lot over here, Kevin. Now, if there's a big parking lot, it means that inside is also big and they can accommodate all the people here. Let's check inside and see how big and beautiful Assisi of Monticello is. >> So, it is a huge parking lot that we have over here. We we we always hope that it should be like this with very few cars. That means we're seeing patients, you know, expeditiously. But on the weekends, on the times where there is a wait or with a lot of patients, there's adequate space for >> enough >> for enough cars. And you'll see that the the space is is just a representation of the place inside. It's a huge facility, beautiful, state of the art. >> Let's take a look. Let's check inside. Wow. Look at this room here. What's this room here? >> So, this is the the kids room, the playroom. As we were saying before, you know, when we as as kids we just played with our with the the little square >> The square thing here. >> [laughter] >> I still remember that. >> That was like the staple at every doctor's office. >> Exactly. But we had such a big room over here, we decided to convert this into a kids room. We have a nurse a room over here for mothers who are nursing. A separate bathroom over here. >> Look at these games here. So, kids probably come just to play here. >> Kids, yeah. So, secondary visits, you know, the primary visit is for kids to have for the family to have a day out, couple hours, let give mommy a break, send the father out. Secondary, maybe they have a sore throat, maybe they have a fever, but it's mostly like a a daycare here. >> Look at this. >> You know, just so we have some privacy. >> with a bathroom. Nice room there, and you have a bathroom right there. This is for the kids area, and I'm not going to show the waiting area cuz there are some patients here, but it's a beautiful big >> Very very big waiting area. >> big spacious waiting area. Let's jump inside. >> Let's take a look. >> rooms. How many How many rooms do you have? How many exam rooms? >> We have eight exam rooms. >> Eight exam rooms? >> Eight full exam rooms. >> Eight Eight exam rooms. Everything is very new, clean. >> State of the art. >> State of the art. It's very air, you know, it just it gives a very clean vibe over here. Um tons of space, a lot of lighting. If you look at each each of the exam rooms, we split them up, we split, you know, >> Look at these nice big exam rooms. >> So, we have obviously all the regular types of stuff that you would find in any urgent care you know, primary care office like rapid strep, rapid flus, COVID, foreign body removals, um rashes, infections, but we have some really great stuff here that we started in Williamsburg years ago, and Baruch Hashem we brought it here now upstate, where we really try managing cases that we can. Every obviously each case is is different, but we try doing the best with you know, for the patient, and if we could avoid a hospital, we try to. Obviously, if the patient needs a hospital, we we will facilitate that, and we'll start the care, but we try our best to if it's safe for a patient to stay home, we do our best to try it to try >> So, like what? You give IV here? >> So, yes, we do So, we have our two sides of um really three sides of this place. It's It's like a a U. First side is like the medical side. We have all the medical patients that come in through here. >> Mhm. >> And in this room over here, the bigger room, we do um we have uh our bedroom. >> Okay. Let's look over here. What do you have here? >> So, here's like, let's say we do IVs, EKGs. Now, we do uh >> Oxygen. >> Yeah, a lot of people can fit in this room. Obviously, if you have someone that's acutely ill, respiratory distress, allergic reaction, something like that, we put them straight into this room. >> So, it's like the right side, the north. >> Yeah, the north side of the end of my mind is, if you know if you know what that means. But, you know, we have full IV you know, IV supplies, IV medications, whether it's IV hydration, um >> What's that? >> This is a wireless EKG machine. >> Oh, wireless you can get EKG here as well? >> We do EKGs here. Uh we had quite a few. Obviously, upstate it's very you know, there's not many options and there's there's really very limited definitive care. So, we have a lot of patients coming with a lot of different medical issues, very complicated things. And we've had but we've been able to assist a lot of patients who had heart attacks that came here to the center. >> Really? >> Came here. We we Yeah, plenty of times. >> You On that machine, you've seen MIs? >> We've had MIs. We had last year a chopper job from this office. A father came running with a child. It was a head trauma. Child got choppered and had a bleed. >> Wow. >> They had >> So, this is out of this room right here? >> Out of this room. We have, you know, >> So, you you Do you use that oxygen? >> We use the oxygen. Obviously, it's it's a case-by-case basis. If a patient needs a hospital and needs a definitive care and needs more more monitoring or higher level of care or more testing, we send them out. We do only if it's safe and it's appropriate do we >> Keep the patient here? >> but we we try as best as as possible to do with with the ignition switch with with our heart and putting our heart and soul in every patient. Just trying to do the best whatever for each patient individually. >> Wow. Let's jump into the stitches room cuz okay. I mean, everybody knows Dr. Zaler is stitches. I mean, you're a lot more than that, but you're known for your stitches. Everybody know Everybody know that you >> Thank you. I appreciate that. By the way, up state, appointment only, please, for stitches, because if you don't want to wait 3 hours, because there's 15 cuts behind you, well, for an appointment, it just makes it a lot easier for for everyone else. For you, I'm sure you don't want to sit here. So, that's probably the longest period of waiting is stitches, because we have 10 to 20 a day. On a Motza Shabbos, I'll be here till 3:00, 4:00 a.m. >> No way. >> So, >> Wow. >> Question, does insurance cover stitches? >> 100%. So, we we we take all New York insurances, uh Medicaid, uh Medicare, all the everything in between. We take many New Jersey insurances, as well. Um and even if someone does not have insurance, we really work with them. It's not We make it um even for stitches or for other things, we make it inexpensive. >> the most stitches you've ever given in your life? >> I don't know. I I don't I like I tell all the patients and every patient comes and says, "You remember me?" I said, "Not really. I don't remember what I did this morning." "Oh, you saw me yesterday. You gave me 25 stitches." Uh you know, but it's not I I every day I wake up, it's a new beginning. >> Mhm. >> But, >> No, but on a single wound, what was the most like stitches you actually put into a wound? >> So, [snorts] unfortunately, we have a lot of cases where people go for stitches um in other places, like they go to the emergency room somewhere, and they and we just had recently someone who went to the emergency room, needed to go to the emergency room, cuz they were in a car accident, and had head trauma. There was It was a young woman, in her early 20s, had If I would show you the cut, it looked the whole forehead zigzag. There were eight stitches there. The thing looked like a total disaster at They came to me. It was a Motza Shabbos. It it 2:00 in the morning. I normally don't do it because we do fresh lacerations. But they spoke to me and they pleaded with me, "Please, can I try helping?" You know, I looked at it. It was It was It was very bad. You redid it. Baruch Hashem, we took out the stitches. I There must have been 50 stitches in this person's forehead. >> Wow. >> Um there was a nose laceration they didn't even stitch that needed to be stitched. I took them out. Baruch Hashem, it looks beautiful. I'm just happy that I I could help I could help this person. Um you know, one patient at a time. And for her, obviously, it's huge, but Baruch Hashem, I have the you know, we're given the ability to help, and that's what we try to do. Uh who is this? This is number one. This is Dr. Ben. >> Dr. Ben in the house. >> Bubley. He's number one, close friend of mine. I don't know if I should say Talmid, he doesn't like that, but he is >> [laughter] >> but he's he's great. We work together always. We work, you know, very well together. We've been working together in Williamsburg for what, 5 >> Almost >> 5 years already. Um we deal with acute patients together. We work um teamwork. And you know, we do stitches together, we do x-rays together, we see patients together. We're always together on the weekends upstate because Ben has uh Dr. Ben has his office in 13th Avenue and I have mine in Williamsburg. But upstate we come together and on the weekends we're always here together. From Friday to Sunday, we're always working together, so we work >> Mhm. That's amazing thing. You guys are in the community. You're in Williamsburg. >> Brooke, you know the community, you're familiar with them with their needs and all that. That's really great. >> Yeah, so you know, I came from to Williamsburg. Next year is going to be 10 years. In 2016, 10 years. I was looking at the photos from the opening. We were just [snorts] looking at those photos. >> So you know Williamsburg. >> So I came as a nobody. I didn't know anyone, didn't speak a word of Yiddish. I really don't speak Yiddish now, but I understand most of it. But Baruch Hashem, you know, we've gained the trust of the community. There's a lot of mutual respect that goes into that. You respect others, you gain you gain respect back. Nothing is taken for granted. And Baruch Hashem >> We put in a lot of effort and hours. >> Yeah, we put in we put in a lot of work and really in the end of the day the two of us just we want to go home knowing that we did the best for each patient, knowing that >> It doesn't It doesn't end there. Like even when we're home >> Obviously I you get people phone calling you from the house. >> 20 20 24/7. 24 >> number is private. People, friends, family, neighbors. >> So your phone number's out there. >> Phone number's out there. It's It is difficult. A lot of times we we need we each need our own secretary because it's >> Very busy. >> Very busy. Everyone needs you know needs and wants attention. They're especially upstate. >> Mhm. >> I have a lot of my primary care patients. Ben has a lot of his primary care patients. Patients are have complex issues and you know where do you go upstate when you have you know you can't just spend two minutes with a patient and know what's going on. So you know >> how you see that you know people come to Assista and they know they're getting the doctor who's going to care for them, who they can call after hours, who's there for them not just you know in and out. >> Also the big manner that we have between each other is that like we've been able to Patient have been able to trust me and him together work together and >> Wow, that's amazing. >> That's amazing, right? That's the relationship we've been able to establish over there. >> Okay, so now we're starting on we have the medical side which is like the right wing of the of the facility. Now we have the middle side which is kind of like the trauma wing. >> Trauma. >> where we do our portable x-rays with the fluoroscopy, low dose radiation. We have lead. Now we have if you look around the room literally for everything whether it's a boots, fractures, crutches, ankles, slings. Um many different types of wrists wrist injuries. Also what we do here that's very that is very unique to to Assista and to here and to Dr. Ben-Ezra is that um we do cast here on on site waterproof casting. If you know, if something requires a cast or you know, or needs to be molded a certain way will work with an orthopedist with an orthopedist crazy orthopedic surgeon. Do you have an orthopedist here? So we have so we we have a close communication with different orthopedic surgeons and we'll show them live images and live views of what's going on if it needs a little movement needs a little you know, slight reduction. We'll do it and they will always follow up with the orthopedist after but they give us the ability to cast the patients here. It used to be that you had a fracture, you were going down to the city for everything. Now 90% of the cases of the fractures here that we see, we can cast on on site and they can follow up the next day or the in two days with the orthopedic surgeons. So you give the cast here. You do the cast here waterproof. We have different colors. We have different colors. White, black, blue, pink. So for the girls you have pink cast, the boys you have everything waterproof. It's all also all all covered by insurance. There's no extra added fee for for waterproof casting. >> It's great. Wow. >> We'll remove the cast. So sometimes in the event let's say a child has a an injury that we can't take care of, needs sedation, needs a hospital, needs an orthopedist needs surgery. So a lot of times they'll we'll send them to the city from here with a solid especially if they're in pain. Give them pain medication. We'll start an IV. We'll give them a video. We'll give them pain medication and then what we'll do is we'll follow up with the orthopedic surgeon and then instead of them dragging to the city in four weeks to remove the cast, we'll remove the cast, we'll repeat the images and send it to the orthopedist. >> That's great. This is probably the most busiest room here in the Catskills. Lacerations, that's the number one visit over here. So you do stitches right here. So lay it down over here. >> So we this room is quite busy. Um You know, fortunately, unfortunately, you know, the parents a lot of times they feel like they're going to pass out. So, we Many times we have multiple patients in this room. >> It's like an MCI. >> You like that, right? It is like a little MCI, but we Um obviously, the bed is fully functioning bed. It goes to a table It goes to a chair. Um we keep patients comfortable in here. Uh it's a nice big room, lit up. Again, we do um >> Where is the average stitches you do a day? >> 15 to 20 a day. Uh stitches, mostly faces. Um cosmetic best for best cosmetic outcomes. You know, we have um top-of-the-line, top brands um of stitches, everything that we use. Um we don't settle, even though these are, you know, everything is much more expensive. We have, you know, for when it comes to a person when it's, you know, it's very easy to to do when it's when it's money, but if it's your child, you'd want the best. That's what we really try to to instill and to give to every patient. Just try Even if it's a small, minor thing, you have a little cut and, you know, maybe put some glue or maybe put a little steri-strip. We always will do the best. It It's not about the money. If If the If the patient is going to have a better cosmetic outcome, we're going to do the whatever is best. If it needs a couple just two stitches, we're going to do two stitches. If it needs 50 stitches, we're going to do 50 stitches. If it takes me an hour or takes me 5 minutes, >> Wow. >> It's It's uh >> Doctor, I feel you're a showman there. Your heart. What is this? >> This is the the digital X-ray machine, like you typically have in any um radiology place or the ER. >> So, this is a full ER, like you said. >> I didn't say that. Obviously, if a patient needs an ER, we we send them to the ER and you know, unfortunately, there are a lot of patients upstairs with a lot of comorbidities, a lot of things that we can't manage. But, us we can do our best to at least start the process and see if we can manage the patient safely in an outpatient setting. Um we have a tech always, get it read by radiologist, um chest x-rays, things like that we'll do in here. But we'll try a most times to use the fluoroscopy because it's low dose radiation. >> Nice. Doctor, thank you so much for showing me this gorgeous state-of-the-art Afikim of Monticello. I'm going to call it Afikim of Monticello because it's Afikim of the Catskills cuz people come here from far and near just to see Dr. Effie, Dr. Zaller. Gorgeous location, eight exam rooms plus stitches, x-rays, IV, oxygen, EKG, and anything you might need. I call it a mini ER with the Yiddish heart with Dr. Zaller over here. You didn't say it, I said it. >> [laughter] >> Camera, the address is 353 East Broadway. What's the phone number? >> 845-419-1000. We're open Sunday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to midnight. Um >> Friday's probably >> Friday is 9:00 to 4:00. >> Motzei Shabbos? >> And Motzei Shabbos is after Shabbos till till whenever. I mean till the till the last last patient leaves. Obviously, that's what I'm spending most of my time doing is stitching. So if it needs to be till 3:00 4:00 a.m., uh that's what we need to do. >> Thank you so much, doctor. >> So, you know, the the brand it's Afikim to your health. You know, we really try to instill here in our in everyone, whether it's the the physicians, the the the staff, the the mid-levels, um everyone should, you know, care about the patient. You're not just another number. You're not just uh you know, another uh billing for the insurance. Really try to care for every patient, give that level of heart, and that's really the takeaway from Afikim. >> Thank you doctor. Assister to your health.