Billings-area residents now have another option for affordable healthcare — and no appointment is necessary.
Opened in March 2022, Big Sky Locums Medical Walk-In Clinic is founded and led by Dr. Jimmy Gray, who has been practicing medicine in rural parts of Montana since 2001. A graduate with honors from Meharry Medical College, Dr. Gray brings 20 years of emergency care and primary care experience to patients at the new clinic — a rare skillset among physicians.
“Most internists don't have 20 years of continuous emergency medicine. I have 20 years of uninterrupted emergency medicine experience,” notes Dr. Gray.
From 1987 to 1993, Dr. Gray served as a medic in the U.S. army. With his decades of experience working around hospital emergency rooms, Dr. Gray is highly skilled in helping patients with a wide range of urgent needs, as well as general psychological matters.
Quality face-to-face time with the doctor is at the heart of Big Sky’s patient-care model.
“I was trained by physicians who sat at the bedside, talked to patients face to face,” Dr. Gray said. “They didn't type on computers. They didn't write things down. They trained themselves to remember what happened and that training paid off because they could change positions and were adept at interacting with people on a one-to-one basis. When you are engaged in a human interaction, it's very easy to remember the exact details of what was said.”
A love of science is what initially attracted Dr. Gray to medicine. He believes the corporate healthcare system is too bureaucratic, top heavy and costly, damaging the patient experience. His walk-in clinic model offers patients access to care that’s more affordable than a hospital visit.
For people who don’t have health insurance or a primary care doctor, Big Sky Locums Medical Walk-In Clinic can fill in the gaps. “We have to protect that space for people that don't have anybody and they actually do have urgent care needs,” said Dr. Gray. “They need to see somebody within the next couple of days or it's going to get worse.”
But when should a patient go to an urgent walk-in clinic vs. the emergency room?
“We can treat acute orthopedic injuries, infectious diseases. If all of a sudden someone is having chest pain, and they're not sure what it is, I would say it depends on the patient. If you're a healthy young person, you probably should come to a clinic like this and get an EKG (electrocardiogram),” said Dr. Gray. “But if the chest pain happens in someone who has had a triple bypass and they’re 65 years old with high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes, then in that case the person needs to go to the ER.”
Big Sky Locums Medical Walk-in Clinic is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays, and is closed on Sundays. Big Sky is located at 900 S. 24th St. W., Suite 5, in Billings, Montana, 59102. For more information, visit provider.kareo.com/dr-jimmy-gray or call 406-534-2554.
