Editor's note: this version corrects the name of the newtwork the Lawrence + Memorial Medical Group.

Waterford — Jennifer Strickland hadn’t been feeling well, but wasn’t happy with the primary care practice where she had been getting her care.

So instead of returning to her old physician, the town resident decided Tuesday to try the new walk-in clinic at the Crossroads Professional Building at 196 Parkway South.

“This is two minutes down the road from my house,” said Strickland, who waited about five minutes before being led into an exam room for an assessment of her sore throat, severe congestion and other symptoms. “I’ve been looking to switch to a new doctor.”

Open since Thursday, the medical practice called L+M at Crossroads is the newest addition to the series of primary care practices that are part of the Lawrence + Memorial Medical Group network along the coast from Old Lyme to Westerly.

“The goal is for every town along I-95 in our area to have same-day access to primary care,” said Dr. Christopher Lehrach, president of the L+M Medical Group and chief transformation officer for L+M. “It’s about meeting the patient’s needs when they need it.”

With four exam rooms, the new clinic is staffed by Dr. Kevin Torres, an emergency department physician and director of clinical access for L+M, along with a nurse and medical assistant.

On Jan. 4, Dr. Rachelle Darout will replace Torres at the clinic, and more physicians and other staff may be added in future.

It is open five days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but longer hours are anticipated as the patient pool grows.

“We’ll expand to scale,” Lehrach said.

The clinic moved into vacant space in a building that houses an L+M imaging center and laboratory, along with a cardiology practice affiliated with L+M.

Also located there on the second floor is a walk-in clinic and orthopedic practice affiliated with L+M’s main local competitor, The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich.

Mike O’Farrell, spokesman for L+M, said the New London-based hospital has had a longstanding presence in the building, so adding a walk-in center there was a natural extension of its services.

He and Lehrach are both confident that the need for primary care is more than enough to sustain two walk-in clinics at the same address.

“That’s not a problem we have, that there’s too much primary care,” Lehrach said.

L+M has hired 15 new primary care doctors in the past year, Lehrach said, part of its response to national “value-based care” initiatives that are driving hospitals to find ways to provide higher quality services at lower cost.

To accomplish that, Lehrach said, more care must be provided in primary care offices rather than in emergency departments and urgent care centers.

“We’re trying to keep people out of the emergency room, and to provide places where people being discharged from the hospital can be seen,” he said.

In the four days the new clinic has been open, Torres said he’s treated patients with coughs, cold and flu symptoms, head injuries, rashes and broken bones.

“All of your every day, primary care stuff,” he said. “When people come here, if they need an X-ray or a blood draw, we can send them across the way to the labs right here. There’s a lot of people we can help here instead of in the ER.”

j.benson@theday.com

Twitter: @BensonJudy