Today we’d like to introduce you to DJ Bachovin.
Hi DJ, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have been a Physician Assistant since 2010, working in Emergency Medicine for the bulk of my career. My partner Mike Whalen MD and I met working in the ER together. Our community was victim to the closure of an entire health system (Crozer), leading to 4 hospitals abruptly closing their doors over the past few years. Dr. Whalen and I decided that it would be the right time to open an urgent care in the community to help our neighbors in need of urgent medical care. We opened People’s Choice Urgent Care in January 2025 and have been seeing more and more patients each month.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We had a lot of help from our friends in Bensalem PA, who opened an urgent care 6 years ago. They have been instrumental in establishing our agreements with insurance companies and obtaining our compliance with the state and urgent care association. The biggest challenges have been obtaining enough capital to afford the facility and equipment, and be able to afford everyones salary. Things got very tight in the begining, but now that we are a year in we are seeing a lot more wiggle room with the monthly budget. Additionally, navigating the contracts with insurance plans has been difficult and confusing. We have also struggled with marketing, as my partners and I have no background in marketing.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Physician assistant and I specialize in Emergency medicine. I have had a passion for education, spending several years as a professor of emergency medicine at Jefferson University east falls and guest lecturing at several other local Physican assistant programs. I co-founded the emergency medicine fellowship for physicain assistants at Lankenau hospital – a program designed to prepare new graduate PAs for a career in emergency medicine. My years of experience and exposure to education and training have allowed me to become very skilled procedurally and confident in stressful situations. I am a hard worker and opening my own practice was fitting for my personality. It has been a difficult but very satisfying venture and I am happy to help a community in need of acute care.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
We rely heavily on medicaid patients in our neighborhood. The political challenges recently have made it difficult for many of our neighbors to obtain affordable health insurance. We want to continue to be available to our patients even without insurance, and so we aim to continue to offer low cost options for them to seek medical care without insurance in our office.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.peopleschoiceucdelco.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572391268870
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/peoples-choice-urgent-care-upper-darby-township
