Committed to Your Health: Premier Acute Care Services in Alexandria, VA, and Ruther Glen/Ladysmith, VA

PACS opened in 2018 in a rural community that, at the time, had very limited access to same-day medical care. As an emergency physician who has spent years working in underserved areas, Dr. Hammad was constantly seeing patients in crowded emergency rooms who really just needed timely, affordable urgent care — but they had no local option.

The founding vision was simple: bring high-quality, physician-led urgent care to a rural community that had been overlooked. We wanted local families, workers, and travelers to have a place they could walk into, be treated with respect, and be seen quickly without driving long distances to Fredericksburg or Richmond or waiting hours in a hospital ER.

At PACS, our mission is to be a long-term partner in the health and stability of this rural community. That means more than just treating sore throats and broken bones. We want to:

● Keep people out of overcrowded emergency rooms when they don’t need to be there
● Support local employers with healthy, reliable workers
● Work alongside the county, schools, first responders, and local businesses to make sure people here have the same access to timely care that big cities do

Ultimately, our goal is to make it easier for families in this area to stay healthy without leaving their own community.

Our philosophy is: small-town feel, big-city medical quality. We combine:

● Physician-led decision-making and evidence-based medicine
● A personal, relationship-based approach where staff know patients by name
● A strong commitment to explaining diagnoses and plans in plain language

We treat every patient as if they were a neighbor, because they usually are. In a rural town, you’re going to see your patients at the grocery store, at school events, and in the mosque, church, or park. That keeps us grounded and accountable in how we care for people.

One of the things that sets PACS apart is that they brought full-service, emergency-trained urgent care to a rural area that previously did not have that level of access. We offer a broad scope of services under one roof, from x-rays and lab testing to laceration repair, splinting, and IV therapies, in a setting that historically only had primary care offices or long drives to hospitals.

Our team’s background in emergency medicine allows us to safely manage more complex urgent issues on site and know when a patient truly needs to be transferred to the ER.

We approach each visit with three priorities:

1. Listen first. Many patients here have been rushed or dismissed elsewhere. We take time to hear the full story.

2. Educate clearly. We make sure patients understand what is going on, what we’re treating, what to watch for, and when to come back or go to the ER.

3. Respect people’s time and finances. We know time off work, long drives, and big hospital bills hit rural families hard. We work hard to keep wait times reasonable and avoid unnecessary tests or referrals.

Because PACS is a small, locally owned practice, our decisions are driven by what is best for the patient and the community, not by a large corporate system.

Every day is a bit of an adventure in urgent care. A typical day might include:

● School and daycare kids with fevers, a cough, or injuries
● Workers with cuts, sprains, or job-related injuries
● Families needing same-day care for ear infections, rashes, or asthma
● Travelers passing through who get sick or injured on the road

Our staff switches constantly between clinical care, reassuring anxious parents, coordinating with local pharmacies, and sometimes even helping patients arrange follow-up when they don’t have a regular doctor.

The pace can be fast, but our team works like a family. Everyone helps where needed to make sure patients feel taken care of from the moment they walk in until they leave.

Every patient should know that we are here for this community, and we’re not going anywhere.

We are a small, locally owned business, not a big chain. We made a deliberate choice to invest in a rural area, and we genuinely care about the people who live and work here. When you walk through our doors, you’re not just another number — you’re someone we’re committed to taking care of over the long term.

Some of our proudest moments are when patients or families say, “If you weren’t here, I don’t know what we would have done.”

We’ve had countless situations where:

● A patient avoided a long, exhausting ER trip because we were able to treat them right here
● A worker was able to get back on the job safely because we saw and treated them quickly
● A parent left feeling relieved because their child was seen promptly and compassionately

On a broader level, Dr. Hammad is proud that since opening in 2018, we’ve become a trusted part of the community, not just a clinic, but a partner for the county, schools, and local businesses.

Compassionate. Community-focused. Reliable.

We build trust by being consistent and human:

● We introduce ourselves, explain our roles, and speak in plain language.
● We give patients time to ask questions and never rush them out the door.
● We are honest about what we can handle on site and when it’s safer to go to the ER or see a specialist.
● We follow up and encourage people to come back if they’re worried.

In a small community, word of mouth matters. We know that every patient we see could be a neighbor, co-worker, or family friend, which keeps us humble and focused on doing the right thing.

As an emergency and urgent care physician, Dr. Hammad has seen family, friends, and community members struggle to access timely care, especially when they live far from big hospitals or don’t have a primary care doctor they can see quickly.

Seeing people delay care because of distance, cost, or fear of huge hospital bills has made him very focused on:

● Making care accessible and same-day, whenever possible
● Being transparent about costs and avoiding unnecessary tests
● Creating an environment where people feel safe coming in “just to get checked” before things become dangerous

That personal perspective shapes how he designs PACS’ services and how he talks to patients about their options.

PACS has been involved with various local initiatives, from school and sports physicals to health outreach with county partners and local businesses. Some of the most meaningful experiences have been simple things:

● For example, doing sports and school physicals and seeing those same kids come back later for injuries or illnesses, and watching them grow up over the years, has reinforced that we’re not just seeing “visits,” we’re taking care of families over time.

These community connections remind us that what we do has a direct impact on local schools, workplaces, and families. It motivates us to keep improving and to stay present and available, even when it’s challenging as a small business.

Dr. Hammad was drawn to emergency medicine because it combines critical thinking, hands-on procedures, and the ability to help people on some of their hardest days. Over the years, working in busy emergency departments, he saw how unfair it was that many people ended up in the ER simply because they had no other place to go. That’s what pushed him to open an urgent care in a rural area: to give people a better option.

What keeps him motivated every day is knowing that:

● We are filling a real gap in access to care
● We’re easing the burden on local hospitals
● We’re making things a little easier for families who otherwise would have to sacrifice time, money, and energy just to be seen

Dr. Hammad’s most meaningful “awards” have been the trust of patients and the growth of PACS in a rural area where access to care was limited. Any formal awards or recognitions he has received over the years have been secondary to that mission.