How it Began

Five years ago, our Founder and CEO, Darius Monsef, rushed his little girl from the bike park to the Pediatric Urgent Care. It was his first experience with a pediatric emergency as a father, and he was terrified. But as Dr. Fish skillfully stitched up his daughter's chin, a wave of gratitude washed over him.  Dr. Fish and his team had transformed an incredibly scary moment into a chance for his little one to be brave.

Being a serial entrepreneur, Darius recognized the immense value and uniqueness of Dr. Fish's work in providing urgent care tailored specifically for kids. And so, Brave Care was born with a mission to help every child reach their full potential through excellent and accessible immediate care for the bumps and bugs that are a healthy part of a child’s development.

Building with Purpose in Challenging Times

Over the past five years, fueled by passion and purpose, Brave Care has set out to become the ultimate partner in pediatric care for parents everywhere.  We took what was a single walk in pediatric urgent care clinic in Oregon and expanded into two states, giving us the opportunity and honor to care for over 20,000 kids.  With a background in tech, our founder team developed Brave Care software, and created innovative parent tools such as our nurse chat, symptom checker, and dosage guides. We hosted community classes in our clinics, equipped a mobile care van for convenient care, nd offered Covid-19 testingthroughoutthe pandemic during a time when it was difficult to get babies and young kiddos tested. As we grew, we launched Primary Care to provide even greater continuity of care for our families.

During our first five years, our commitment to accessible and affordable care for kids and families grew stronger every day. We found ourselves constantly striving to disrupt and improve pediatric care, but there never seemed to be enough hours in the day. Then, in the winter of 2022, a new challenge and opportunity emerged.

Local hospitals reached out to Brave Care, overwhelmed by RSV surges in their emergency rooms. Nearly 60% of the cases they were seeing didn't require emergency-level care and could be treated in an urgent care setting. Recognizing the need to support our community and provide an alternative to the long waits, high costs, and inadequate facilities of the ER, we rallied our teams and expanded our capacity to care for sick kids that winter.

The Most Important Missing Resource

During that season, we realized just how vital pediatric urgent care is to our families, our hospital partners, and our Primary Care Physician colleagues in the community. We serve as a critical resource for children, ensuring they receive prompt care from our expert pediatric teams. We save parents valuable time and money. While high-quality Primary Care and digital care resources like BlueberryPediatrics.com & SummerHealth.com  are readily available, what's missing in our neighborhoods is urgent care tailored exclusively for kids, staffed with dedicated pediatric teams, and available 365 days a year.

To be the best partner to parents, hospitals, and primary care physicians, we have made the decision to redirect all of our focus to Pediatric Urgent Care.  Starting in Summer of 2023, we will unwind and sunset our Brave Care app and nurse chat, and our Primary Care service line.  In addition we will scale back our community events and classes so that we can truly dedicate all resources to taking care of sick kiddos.  To ensure the best care for our Primary Care kiddos, we will work hand in hand with our community’s trusted pediatricians to provide our existing Primary Care patients a smooth transition to their next Primary Care home. 

Brave Care: Pediatric Urgent Care

In this next chapter of Brave Care you will see us refocus as the best pediatric urgent care,  with  walk-in clinics thoughtfully designed by pediatricians and parents, built exclusively for kids. We will remain open from 10 am to 8 pm, 365 days a year, including holidays, doubling down on our commitment to caring for sick and injured children when they need us the most. Equipped with on-site x-ray, labs, and medications, we are proud to provide an invaluable resource to the communities we serve.  Moving forward our families will be able to walk into any of our clinics when their kids need care, or save their spot in line on our website Bravecare.com.  We’ve opened up additional visit capacity and are making it simple and easy to get the care your child needs, faster.

As we embark on this next phase, our original founder and tech team will move on to their next ventures, entrusting the reins to our existing passionate group of leaders led by COO and entrepreneurial mom Alex Buchholz.  Alex & her clinical leadership team have navigated Brave Care through Covid-19, new clinic launches, and more.  They bring valuable clinical and operations expertise, urgent care experience, and, most importantly, their own experiences as parents. Our founding team will remain supportive advisors, board members and regular visitors to our clinics with their own kids.

We are filled with excitement for what lies ahead for Brave Care, we are eager to advance our mission and continue adding value to the families we serve, as well as the community partners who share our vision and passion for creating a brighter future of healthcare for our children. As parents ourselves, we understand the fear and anxiety that can arise when our children are sick or injured. At Brave Care, what drives us is the opportunity to turn those scary moments into amazing chances to be Brave.  We extend our heartfelt thanks for your unwavering support over the past five years, and we eagerly anticipate continuing to be your trusted partner throughout your child's healthcare journey.

Your partners in parenting,

Darius Monsef & Alex Buchholz