When SF Aesthetics opened in Manhattan last spring, many didn’t realize that a dual family practice and walk-in urgent care facility were in the same space, under the name First Care Family Clinic. Many Manhattan residents are finding the facility helpful, with cold and flu season well underway.
Several shared their experiences with the family urgent care clinic on social media, specifically the Manhappenins Facebook group.
“My husband had to take our seven-month-old there today when couldn’t get a hold of the pediatrician, because she was struggling to breathe from what we now know is RSV,” Mandy Kite wrote on Facebook. “He was so impressed with the speed and kindness of the staff there,” she continued.
Commenters, who visited, praised their care, ranging from additional RSV treatment cases to other emergent services.
“Right now, big Flu A and RSV are on the rise. We get a lot of those,” David Cherry, FNP-C, explained in an interview. Cherry is the primary nurse practitioner working out of the First Care Family Clinic in Manhattan.
In just shy of a year, Cherry estimated they had seen more than 1,000 patients.
“We’ve been able to save lives,” Cherry said, telling of a patient who walked in just to get checked out but ended up having a life-threatening pulmonary embolism.
Before coming to family care, Cherry worked in emergency medicine for more than 20 years, starting as an EMT and firefighter. He realized he excelled in medicine and enjoyed the work, so he continued his education and now holds his nurse practitioner’s license.
Despite his emergency and urgent care capabilities, he enjoys serving the community. “I was surprised how much I enjoy taking care of my neighbors,” Cherry said of the transition to working in a family practice.
“I’ve gotten my primary list up to 110-115 patients, who see me on a regular basis, with ages ranging from two weeks old to 98 years old,” Cherry said.
The family clinic is truly a family clinic, with family-run operations. Medical directors of the practice include triple-board certified physician Sadaf Farooqi, MD, FACP, DABOM, and Saadia Zaheer, MD, FAAP, who specializes in pediatrics. Farooqi’s husband and Zaheer’s brother, Faisal Sheikh, is the CEO of the operation, handling the business side of things.
Sheikh explained that although he’s “the odd man out” in a family of medical professionals, he’s been involved in the technology and business aspects of the journey.
More than 20 years ago, Sheikh’s sister, Zaheer, opened her pediatric practice, Zaheer Pediatric Associates, in the Kankakee area. The practice includes a primary care facility in the same vicinity. Later, they opened an urgent care in Bourbonnais.
Farooqi handles everything from aesthetics to weight loss and primary care.
When patients walk into the clinic, they check in at the reception desk and are directed to the left for primary and urgent care or to the right for aesthetics services.
SF Aesthetics, operated by the same practitioners in the same building, offers non-surgical aesthetic treatments, such as Botox, body contouring, weight-loss treatments, Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), and more.
“The reason we came to Manhattan was twofold: One, we wanted to expand our serving beyond the two towns we’ve served for the past 20 years; plus – two, we’re a big fan of serving local communities; that’s why the majority of our staff is from Manhattan. We live right behind Manhattan in Frankfort,” Sheikh said.
“Our goal is to continue to provide top-of-the-line healthcare services with a true passion in healthcare,” Sheikh said, emphasizing the providers genuinely care about their patients and are passionate about medicine.
Both Sheikh and Cherry explained they take care not to overbook, allowing ample time for patient care and to see any urgent walk-ins.
“I think I’ve seen Dave spend 40 minutes on the same patient, if it’s needed. We want the patient well-briefed, for them to understand the problem, and how we’re going to treat that ailment. We have a different approach to that,” Sheikh explained.
The dual urgent care and primary care clinic is open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., though Cherry said he’s opened the clinic early at 5 or 6 a.m. to see some of his patients because of their work schedules. They do their best to accommodate their patients.
“To us, it’s a passion. Patient safety and wellbeing comes first rather than having another person on our schedule,” Cherry said.
The practice has a dedicated call center to handle calls outside of office hours, where the concern can be forwarded to one of the clinic’s on-call providers, who work on a rotational schedule. They can then call back and answer their question or refer them to one of the hospitals.
The providers are credentialed at New Lenox’s Silver Cross Hospital and Kankakee’s St. Mary’s Hospital, so patients could be transferred to either hospital for continued care.
Regarding urgent care services, Cherry explained they can offer IV therapy if needed. They plan to have in-house x-ray equipment staffed and running once the need dictates but, until then, they can give patients a priority referral to Prime Medical Imaging in Mokena or St. Mary’s Hospital, so they can be seen immediately.
First Care Family Clinic accepts all private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid.
“We want to be part of the community and extend our services to the residents. We want to be there when they need us,” Sheikh explained.
Stephanie Irvine is a freelance reporter.