Fun fact: Pinnacle Urgent Care is a family-owned business, and it’s helmed by Dr. Matt Blanchard and his wife, Haley. Together, they have created a clinic for patients to receive great care with Haley running the office and Dr. Blanchard devoting all his time to patient care.
If you come see us for care, it’s likely you’ll meet Dr. Blanchard, and we want you to have a chance to get to know the guy behind your treatment.
After all, one of our main goals here at Pinnacle Urgent Care is to create an environment where you feel welcome, seen, and heard. We know urgent care isn’t the same as primary care from a relationship building perspective, yet we work hard to connect with our patients and make sure they receive a very human, personalized experience with us. Knowing a bit about Dr. Blanchard might just help with that!
Q&A with Dr. Matt Blanchard:
Q: Where did you grow up, and when did you realize you wanted to pursue medicine?
A: I grew up in south Louisiana, and I started telling my parents I wanted to be a doctor one day when I was in first or second grade. The idea of every day being different and every patient being different intrigued me. I saw it as a problem-solving challenge every day at work, which I enjoy.
Q: Where did you go to undergrad and medical school, and what unique takeaways do you feel you gained from those schools/what drew you to them in the first place?
A: Having grown up in Baton Rouge and being a lifelong LSU fan, I did my undergrad at LSU in chemistry. For med school, I went to Ross University School of Medicine on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Being on the island to study medicine was an unbelievable experience, as I would get to flip through my notecards every Saturday and Sunday for 8-10 hours right there on the beach. I was able to take study breaks by going to swim in the Caribbean Ocean.
Q: What brought you to North Carolina?
A: In 2018, my wife, Haley, and I started to discuss moving out of Louisiana to explore other parts of the country. In 2019, as we were expecting our first child, we moved to North Carolina. We chose this state because of the Research Triangle and strong medical school affiliations with Wake Forest, Duke, and UNC Chapel Hill.
Both of us are outdoor enthusiasts, too, and we knew we would love living close to mountains where we could do waterfall hikes, whitewater rafting, and still go to the beach in the summer.
Q: Why urgent care?
A: Right out of residency, I picked urgent care because of the variety of pathologies and diseases we treat in this setting. I enjoy the challenge of going into work knowing I might see 30 patients and have 30 different diagnoses. I enjoy urgent care medicine because I can do procedures including lacerations and draining abscesses as well as treating sick patients.
Q: Why Lexington?
A: After opening Pinnacle Urgent Care in Lexington, I really grew to love this population of patients we treat. They are so friendly, patient, and happy that there’s a new urgent care clinic in town. Having grown up in a rural town myself, I really enjoy working in a clinic in a rural area.
Q: Will you share a bit about what it’s like to run this business with your wife?
A: Being able to run this business with my wife at my side has been the only reason it’s been so successful. With her involvement as CEO, it allows me to focus on working as a full-time physician. She wears so many hats, including payroll specialists, head of HR, and CEO.
Q: Will you share a bit about your approach to care/medicine at Pinnacle?
As both my wife and I are from small towns in Louisiana, it’s important to us that we run our clinic with that small town, rural, family feel. We impress upon all our staff that the minimum standard is to treat all patients like family. I find that by listening intently to their answers as they give me their history and doing a complete and thorough exam, most diagnoses can be made.
Our approach at Pinnacle is to do a comprehensive analysis of each problem, leaving no stone unturned in our diagnostic approach and workup. This helps ensure we don’t miss anything.
Q: What are a couple of fun facts you’d like people to know about you?
My wife and I have backpacked through mountains all over the country in 10 different states, as well as a trip through the Alps. It was on that trip, in fact, where I proposed to her: On top of a mountain at 8,7000 feet of elevation!