Primary Care in West Orange, NJ
Walk-Ins Always Welcome!
Call us first for New Jersey primary care.
Office Hours:
| Monday: | 8am – 9pm |
| Tuesday: | 8am – 9pm |
| Wednesday: | 8am – 9pm |
| Thursday: | 8am – 9pm |
| Friday: | 8am – 9pm |
| Saturday: | 8am – 6pm |
| Sunday: | 8am – 6pm |
Our primary care services include:
- Family Medical Care
- Preventative Health Care
- Diabetic Screening & Care
- Treatment of Hypertension
- Treatment of Hyperlipidemia
- Treatment of Chronic Medical Diseases
All Our New Jersey Walk-In Clinics Are:
- Walk-in friendly (or Call To Schedule an Appointment)
- In-network for most New Jersey insurers
- Open 7-days a week
- Open extended hours
- X-Ray, Ultrasound and Labs performed onsite
- Staffed by doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners
Providers At This Location
About Our West Orange, NJ Location
456 Prospect Ave.
West Orange, NJ 07052
Effective Primary Healthcare is dependent on having consistent communication with a (PCP) Primary Care Physician you can trust to be open and honest with. We understand the responsibility that comes with this relationship, and why we are so invested in the care and well-being of our patients.
Our team of medical providers has been in the community for over 35 years. When other medical practices and urgent care sites closed their doors, Care Station Medical Group remained open to serve our community through the worst days of the recent COVID -19 pandemic surge.
Our state-of-the-art facilities, and partnership with RWJBarnabas Health, ensures that we are able to provide the highest level of care, diagnostics and treatment plans.
We’d love to demonstrate our complete commitment to your care.
Our West Orange clinic is conveniently located across the street from the Essex Green Shopping Center.
Have questions? Let us help!
Call us at (908) 925-CARE (2273) or See Our Locations
Meet Dr. Ernest Fontecha
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Q: Tell us about your background as a doctor.A: I attended the University of San Francisco for my undergraduate studies and Ross University School of Medicine for medical school. I completed my internal medicine residency at Rush University/John H. Stroger, Jr Hospital of Cook County in Chicago.
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Q: Why did you choose to become a doctor?A: My interest in medicine stems from my family. I come from a long line of healthcare providers that believe in the importance of good health and wellbeing of the communities they served. They instilled these values in me which I continue to carry on today.
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Q: Why did you choose to practice in an open access primary care practice?A: lieve this structure of medical care provides the patient with the best opportunity to have the core of their primary and ambulatory care needs with their primary care provider.
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Q: What unique skills do you possess?A: Professionally, I have worked in both the inpatient and outpatient setting which has broadened my perspective on medical care. Outside of the clinic, I surf and snowboard as much as I can.
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Q: Describe your day to day activities, priorities and tasks. What do you like best?A: I work approximately 40 hours a week at various times providing primary and urgent care to patients. As much as I can, I try to incorporate health education to my patients as I believe knowledge of one’s own diagnosis and treatment is an important aspect of primary healthcare.
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Q: What accomplishments are you most proud of?A: Completing my rigorous intern medicine residency training.
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Q: What are the key challenges of this field of medicine? How is it changing?A: Medicine is advancing at such a rapid pace, it is imperative for all physicians and providers to be up to date with the newest studies, innovations, regulations, diagnostic tools and treatments.
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Q: If you couldn’t be a physician, what would you be doing?A: I do love to travel and I have always had a fascination with flying, so probably be a pilot.
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Q: What makes working at Care Station special?A: All staff members are highly trained, professional, friendly and are dedicated to delivering the best quality care to the community.
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Q: Why should patients choose Care Station for their primary care?A: Care Station provides patients with comprehensive primary and urgent care as well as a multitude of other specialties.
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Q: Tell us a little something about yourself.A: I am a mild mannered, diligent worker who likes the challenges of working in medicine, but also enjoys being adventurous in my free time.
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Q: How do you like to spend your free time?A: I like to snowboard, surf, hike, travel, cook, marathon TV shows and try new restaurants.
Meet Dr. Carlos Lao
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Q: Tell us about your background as a doctor.A: I attended medical school at University of Santo Tomas, Manila Philippines.
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Q: Why did you choose to become a doctor?A: I choose to become a doctor to help people feel better and get well.
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Q: Why did you choose to practice in an open access primary care practice?A: I choose to practice in primary care to help a broader and greater range of people with their health concerns.
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Q: What unique skills do you possess?A: Internal medicine and occupational medicine.
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Q: Describe your day to day activities, priorities and tasks. What do you like best?A: My day to day activities include working, relaxing, spending family time. All activities are important to me because they all contribute to my well being.
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Q: What accomplishments are you most proud of?A: The accomplishments I am most proud of are my family and my career.
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Q: What are the key challenges of this field of medicine? How is it changing?A: The one key challenge of this field is the advances in technology and how we are extremely dependent on it in our practice and how it enhances our practice.
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Q: If you couldn’t be a physician, what would you be doing?A: If I could not be a doctor at this stage in my life, I would be retired and creating projects for myself.
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Q: What makes working at Care Station special?A: The relationships and connections we create with many of our patients and colleagues makes working at Care Station special.
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Q: Why should patients choose Care Station for their primary care?A: Patients should choose Care Station for their primary care because of the dedication of the doctors, physician assistants, and the staff in the clinic work as a team.
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Q: Tell us a little something about yourself.A: I am a dedicated and loyal individual in every area and aspect of my life.
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Q: How do you like to spend your free time?A: I like to spend my free time with my family.
Meet Lorena Chicas
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Q: Tell us about your background as a physician assistant.A: I attended Saint Peter’s College and got my Bachelors degree of science. I then returned back to my home state of Maryland and got my physician assistant degree.
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Q: Why did you choose to become a physician assistant?A: I became a physician assistant because I want to make a difference in the lives of others.
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Q: Why did you choose to practice in an open access primary care practice?A: I chose primary care because I love seeing the change and the progress of my patients. I love seeing their excitement when we control their blood pressure, blood sugar, weight, etc.
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Q: What unique skills do you possess?A: I’m fluent in Spanish and I think that allows my patients to feel comfortable and able to express their concerns. In addition, I make my patients feel like they are a part of my family. I’m not just their provider but their friend too!
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Q: Describe your day to day activities, priorities and tasks. What do you like best?A: I start my day reviewing refill requests, returning phone calls, reviewing labs. I then see my private patients and walk-in patients. I love the variety of each day. It’s never a boring day!!
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Q: What accomplishments are you most proud of?A: I proud of my 2 year old son. He was born with Down Syndrome but that has not stopped him from doing everything he wants. I am and will forever be his biggest advocate. I want others to know that having a child with DS is a blessing and not a burden!!
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Q: What are the key challenges of this field of medicine? How is it changing?A: The key challenges in medicine include patient non-compliance and the fact that not everyone can afford health care!! Hopefully, by educating our patients on the importance of compliance and helping them obtain health insurance or helping them with samples of medications, we can slowly improve these challenges.
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Q: If you couldn’t be a physician assistant, what would you be doing?A: I would be a speaker and have a nonprofit organization related to Down Syndrome.
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Q: What makes working at Care Station special?A: I love working at Care Station because of my patients. I enjoy seeing their progress … I love keeping my patients healthy. I also enjoy working with some awesome colleagues.
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Q: Why should patients choose Care Station for their primary care?A: Patients should choose Care Station because we offer a lot of specialized testing and have convenient specialists that are ready to help our patients.
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Q: Tell us a little something about yourself.A: I am from El Salvador and have 4 older sisters and 1 younger brother. I am a daughter, sister, aunt, cousin and now mother!! I love to dance, listen to music.
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Q: How do you like to spend your free time?A: I spend my free time with my family. My son is my pride and joy!! I live for him. We enjoy going new places, making new friends.
Meet Christopher Dever
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Q: Tell us about your background as a physician assistant.A: After graduating with my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I moved to Tennessee where I grew my passion for medicine as an optometric technician. I decided to look beyond the eye and ended up at the University of the Cumberlands where I began my journey to become a physician assistant.
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Q: Why did you choose to become a physician assistant?A: I’ve always been interested in helping others and I knew it would be rewarding to improve the lives of other people.
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Q: Why did you choose to practice in an open access primary care practice?A: I wanted the opportunity to build relationships with my patients and have a greater responsibility for their everyday health.
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Q: What unique skills do you possess?A: I am a great listener and have a special ability to bond with people.
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Q: Describe your day to day activities, priorities and tasks. What do you like best?A: Every day starts with a great cup of coffee followed up with seeing patients, reviewing labs, and contacting patients.
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Q: What accomplishments are you most proud of?A: I am proud of being a physician assistant.
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Q: What are the key challenges of this field of medicine? How is it changing?A: The biggest challenges to this field of medicine are the evolving technology and advancements in care.
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Q: If you couldn’t be a physician assistant, what would you be doing?A: If I couldn’t be a physician assistant I would be in research/teaching. I love to learn, and I love to educate whether it’s with patients or on my own.
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Q: What makes working at Care Station special?A: The ability to see patients for their acute and chronic care at the same place.
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Q: Why should patients choose Care Station for their primary care?A: We have a great group of providers and supporting staff where we can offer many services through our practice to better care for our patients.
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Q: Tell us a little something about yourself.A: I love to travel, workout, and eat.
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Q: How do you like to spend your free time?A: I love to spend my free time with family and friends.
Meet Dr. Reema Aljamal
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Q: Tell us about your background as a doctor.A: I graduated from an unopposed Family Medicine residency program at Hoboken University Medical Center, after graduating from Atlantic University School of Medicine in Saint Lucia.
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Q: Why did you choose to become a doctor?A: I wanted to help people and promote good quality healthcare.
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Q:Why did you choose to practice in an open access primary care practice?A: Increased physician availability and accessibility allows for enhanced continuity of care, which leads to improved clinical outcomes for our patients.
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Q: What unique skills do you possess?A: I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Rutgers University, and I have always had a keen interest in mental health. This has helped me better empathize, as well as identify and understand patients’ psychosocial issues and needs, which greatly contribute to their overall health. Mental health is intertwined with physical health, and both must be taken care of.
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Q: Describe your day to day activities, priorities and tasks. What do you like best?A: I tend to make a lot of to-do-lists and outline my plans for the day, which help me manage my time and stay organized.
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Q: What accomplishments are you most proud of?A: I am proud of becoming a physician and being privileged to contribute to the betterment of society’s health.
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Q: What are the key challenges of this field of medicine? How is it changing?A: So many challenges! Simultaneously providing patients with education, quality care and accessibility in an efficient manner to reduce healthcare disparities, while also keeping up with constant new medical research, new guidelines, changes in the overall healthcare system, as well as being empathetic and clinically effective in a way that improves patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes – all in a day’s work – is probably the biggest challenge.
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Q: If you couldn’t be a physician, what would you be doing?A: I would probably be in counseling psychology. I was interested in marriage counseling before I chose medicine.
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Q: What makes working at Care Station special?A: The team at Care Station and their office culture. They are very welcoming, responsive, and eager to help.
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Q: Why should patients choose Care Station for their primary care?A: Because Care Station Medical Group is awesome! We aim to provide excellent services, as well as great accessibility to healthcare; the facilities are open until later hours, on weekends and most holidays. Patients are able to walk in or schedule appointments in advance to see their primary care physician. They will receive the care they seek, and have access to multispecialty subgroups within Care Station, should they need further specialized care.
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Q: Tell us a little something about yourself.A: I am the middle child of one of five siblings, and I’m the family favorite.
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Q: How do you like to spend your free time?A: I spend a lot of my time reading things related to random topics like history, current events, literature. But I’m still terrible at trivia.
Meet Neal Monka
Q: Tell us about your background as a doctor:
A: Undergraduate training: Syracuse University
Medical School: Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine (formerly Rowan SOM)
Internship/Residency: Family Medicine Residency at CarePoint Health – Christ Hospital
Q: Why did you choose to become a doctor?
A:I chose to become a physician because I found true passion in medicine. I have always had a thirst for understanding the human body and figuring out what was needed to help and heal. Even as a young child I found myself wanting to help others that were sick or injured.
Q: Why did you choose to practice in an open access primary care practice?
A: I want to ensure my patients feel welcomed and cared for at each and every visit. With the demanding nature of medicine I want to provide the best possible care and provide my patients with the knowledge to strive for personal health and wellness throughout their lives.
Q: What unique skills do you possess?
A: I am a very passionate person.
Q: Describe your day to day activities, priorities and tasks. What do you like best?
A: I always like to make sure I am on time and ready to go. I like to think of my daily tasks as a checklist that allows me the opportunity to check each item off as they are completed. Then looking back at the completed list gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
Q: What accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: One of the accomplishments I am most proud of is being in the position I am today as a licensed family physician. With the amount of time and energy that were required and sacrifices that had to be made along the way made the result much more worthwhile.
Q: What are the key challenges of this field of medicine? How is it changing?
A: Healthcare is hard and ever changing. Staying ahead of these changes to provide the best care is a challenge.
Q: If you couldn’t be a doctor, what would you be doing?
A: I have some interest in the engineering field, but I also enjoy working with and analyzing numbers as well as assuming costs vs risks, so I have been told I would have made a good actuary.
Q: What makes working at Care Station special?
A: I can’t wait to find out!
Q: Why should patients choose Care Station for their primary care?
A: They will be provided with well rounded, full-spectrum care.
Q: Tell us a little something about yourself.
A: I used to be a competitive bowler, competing in several high stake’s tournaments, and even traveled to Austria to represent America in a young adult ambassador program. I also did some performing in high-school and took part in an a capella group in college.
Q: How do you like to spend your free time?
A: I enjoy spending time with close friends and family, from relaxing sitting around to going on short trips outdoors hiking. I like to have long lasting memories with the people I care most about.
Meet Ryan Colligan
Q: Tell us about your background as a doctor:
A: I completed my undergraduate degree in chemistry at Western Connecticut State University in 2010 while working full-time as a land surveyor. Following graduation, I was hired as a Research Assistant at Columbia University’s Department of Biological Sciences where I worked in Proteomics Research. After two years of research work, I was accepted into medical school and graduated from TouroCOM in Harlem, NYC in 2017. From there I proceeded to Manchester, CT to complete a 3-year residency in Family Medicine with the Eastern Connecticut Health Network, graduating in 2020 during the pandemic.
Q: Why did you choose to become a doctor?
A:Medicine felt like a career where I would always be learning, meeting new people, and getting to exercise both physical and intellectual skills to make a positive difference in people’s lives.
Q: Why did you choose to practice in an open access primary care practice?
A: My experiences in urgent care showed me the desperate need in our communities for more reliable access to primary care resources, and Care Station is the best-situated company thus far to provide this service, in addition to well-integrated specialty services.
Q: What unique skills do you possess?
A: Explaining the complicated details of medicine and illness to people in different ways so that they can fully understand their circumstances and options, with enough good humor to make the experience as enjoyable as possible.
Q: Describe your day to day activities, priorities and tasks. What do you like best?
A: My favorite part of my work is talking with patients, learning about their lives so that I can understand the context of their medical issues and how to provide information that will empower them to make their own decisions and take actions to maximize their wellbeing.
Q: What accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I am the first doctor in my family. I got to work with Nobel Prize winning scientists when I worked at Columbia University.
Q: What are the key challenges of this field of medicine? How is it changing?
A: It seems like there is never enough time to do everything needed for everyone who needs it. The best resource for this problem is institutional organization, which I think is one of Care Station’s greatest strengths.
Q: If you couldn’t be a doctor, what would you be doing?
A: Mad Scientist.
Q: What makes working at Care Station special?
A: Everyone is welcoming and genuinely happy to work here as a team to provide exceptional patient care.
Q: Why should patients choose Care Station for their primary care?
A: Care Station is well organized to provide integrated screening, acute treatment, and specialty services with great providers and excellent support staff.
Q: Tell us a little something about yourself.
A: I taught all of my classmates in my college chemistry department how to throw a frisbee so that I had people to play with in between classes.
Q: How do you like to spend your free time?
A: Reading, hiking, camping, and playing frisbee.