Want to avoid the emergency room? There’s a 24/7 clinic opening in Charlotte.

Carolinas HealthCare System announced Friday plans to open its first 24/7 urgent care clinic in Charlotte.

The facility opens 8 a.m. Tuesday at East Morehead Street and South Kings Drive – next to the system’s flagship hospital in Dilworth.

“The new location will also help with the demand in the emergency department, where we see many patients who could have been treated in the urgent care,” said Stephen Jones, vice president of the medical group division of Charlotte-based Carolinas HealthCare.

Patients can receive treatment at the new location often at a lower cost than the emergency department, said Alfred Kendrick, Carolina’s medical director of urgent care.

Like at the other Carolinas facilities, patients can reserve slots online at the urgent care and use Amazon’s Alexa technology to learn about wait times.

The system already has a 24-hour urgent-care facility in Indian Trail. Across the Charlotte region, Carolinas HealthCare says it has 29 urgent-care facilities, including the one announced Friday.

It’s the latest addition to the list of urgent-care clinics in the region.

Rival Novant Health, for example, says that it has 13 such clinics in Greater Charlotte. While none of those are open 24 hours, Novant said the locations offer extended and weekend hours.

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Want to avoid the emergency room? There’s a 24/7 clinic opening in Charlotte.."