URBANA: The new VitalSkin Dermatology in Urbana “is off to a great start,” says dermatologist Dr. Jeremy Youse, founding partner and chief medical officer.
Youse began seeing patients at the 40,000-square-foot VitalSkin Dermatology at 1111 W. Kenyon Road, U, in August.
Youse, a former Christie Clinic doctor, said some of his former patients followed him to other VitalSkin locations in southern Illinois, where he practiced in the interim before the Urbana location opened, and now some of those patients they are seeing it in Urbana.
“It’s been like a family reunion,” he said.
The Urbana location is the hub for VitalSkin, which now has Urbana locations or affiliate locations in four states.
In addition to the Urbana location, there are two VitalSkin locations in Decatur and one in Mattoon.
There is also one VitalSkin location in St. Louis, Mo., three affiliate locations in the Chicago area, two affiliate locations in Indiana, and four affiliate locations in Kentucky.
Affiliates are associated dermatology practices that are part of VitalSkin and receive back-end management services such as information technology, human resources and accounting, Youse said. Most members have at least one doctor who owns the member, she said.
Membership growth in the Chicago metropolitan area has been strong, he said.
There are four dermatology practices in the Chicago metro area about to join, plus a few others in the Chicago area and a few others in Kentucky that Youse said he hopes to join by the end of the year.
VitalSkin locations offer medical, cosmetic and surgical dermatology services and are growing in number based on word of mouth and quality of practitioners, Youse said.
“It’s been more robust and faster than I think I anticipated it would be,” he said.
Being part of a larger group also helps save local patients a trip out of town for some specialty dermatology services, such as pediatric dermatology, since you can see an affiliated pediatric dermatologist in Chicago, Youse said.
The Urbana location, about a third of which is clinical space, has 40 to 50 employees and will add an esthetician. This location also houses VitalSkin’s management offices and is in the process of building a dermatopathology lab to help diagnose illnesses, Youse said.
VitalSkin aims to take great care of its doctors, which, in turn, leads to great care for patients, he said.
“Happy doctors treat their patients well,” Youse said.
