904-783-0008
904-800-6389
At Injury Care Centers, our team understands just how overwhelming a car accident can be. We’re dedicated to helping you recover, both physically and emotionally, after a collision. Our experienced doctors in Yulee specialize in diagnosing and treating injuries that often result from car accidents – including whiplash, neck and back pain, herniated discs, concussions, and nerve issues like numbness or weakness.
Many crash-related injuries involve soft tissue damage, which may not show up on standard X-rays and can take a day or two before symptoms appear. That’s why our team takes a thorough, personalized approach to every patient, ensuring that injuries aren’t missed and you get the care you need from day one. We’re well-versed in Florida’s requirements, too: you have just 14 days after your accident to get examined if you want your auto insurance to cover your treatment.
We’re committed to making your recovery as smooth as possible. Our Yulee clinic on Homegrown Way welcomes walk-in patients on weekdays, and you never need a referral to see us. Reach out or stop by today; our team is here to help you get back on track after your accident.
See a doctor who treats injuries every day. Car accidents can injure muscles, joints, discs, and nerves. Diagnosing these problems takes a specialized exam, not just a general check-up. Chiropractic physicians, physical medicine doctors, and medical doctors all treat crash patients, and each brings something different.
The best care can happen when all three types of doctors work together in one clinic.
That is how ours are built. You might start with a chiropractic physician for hands-on care and rehab, and if your symptoms call for imaging, injections, or a prescription, the medical doctor and nurse practitioner are on the same treatment plan, reading the same chart and the same exam findings from your first visit. You won’t have to repeat your story to a new doctor who wasn’t there at your first exam.
Under Florida’s no-fault law, a chiropractic physician licensed under chapter 460 is one of the providers who can deliver the initial services and care your auto insurance benefits depend on. So being seen at our Yulee clinic within 14 days satisfies the requirement, no matter which of our clinicians you see.
Your primary care doctor can see you, and most are not set up for it. A standard appointment runs 10 to 15 minutes, a crash exam takes closer to an hour, and few primary care offices have imaging in the building or the billing setup for an auto insurance claim. None of that is a criticism. Your family doctor manages an enormous range of conditions and does it well, and for most of what you will deal with this year, they are the right call.
Crash injuries require specialized exams that are different from regular check-ups. We measure how far your neck turns before it stops, test reflexes and strength muscle by muscle, and check for numbness along specific nerve paths, then write all of it down as numbers we can compare against in a month. This record shows your progress over time, something a quick appointment can’t provide.
Keep seeing your regular doctor for everything else. Come to us for the crash.
During a crash exam, we look for the most likely injuries first, not just what hurts the most right now. Neck and back come first: whiplash, disc injuries, sciatica, and the joint pain that follows a sudden load. Then the joints that brace against impact, meaning shoulders, knees, and wrists. Then head and nerve: concussion, post-crash headaches, and the numbness or weakness that means a nerve is involved.
There’s a common pattern that many people don’t expect. The most painful injury right after the accident isn’t always the most serious one. A seat belt bruise across the shoulder is painful and visible, so it gets described first and at length, while the neck joints that took the same forces are quieter and are the ones still limiting you in three months. That is why your doctor examines areas you have not complained about.
If you had pain before the accident, let your doctor know. A crash often makes old injuries worse. Old back trouble, arthritis, a shoulder that has ached for years. Tell your doctor what was there beforehand, because it changes what the findings mean.
We treat the full range of injuries and ongoing pain across the practice, including plenty of patients who were never in an accident at all. You can find the full list of conditions we treat on our injury clinic page.
Plan on about an hour, and almost all of it is examination.
First, we’ll ask detailed questions about the accident, more specific than most people expect. Which direction the impact came from, whether you were stopped or moving, whether you saw it coming, where your head was turned at the moment of contact, whether your foot was on the brake, and whether your headrest was set high enough to catch your head. A rear-end hit in a queue and a side impact at a junction load the body in completely different directions, so those answers decide what gets examined most closely.
The physical exam then works through it in order: range of motion measured in each direction, strength tested muscle group by muscle group, reflexes at the biceps, triceps, and knee, and sensation mapped along each nerve path instead of described in general terms. Where a nerve is involved, the pattern of numbness tells us which level in your spine is irritated.
We record these measurements because they really matter; they show how you’re improving over time. “45 degrees of neck rotation to the right” is something we can measure again in three weeks and tell you honestly whether you are better. “Neck pain” is not, and there is no going back for it later.
If the exam raises a question a scan can answer, we order it that day. You leave knowing your diagnosis, your treatment plan, how often you’ll need to come in, and what would change any of it.
Tell your doctor everything that has changed since the crash, even things that seem unrelated. Where the pain is and whether it travels. What makes it worse.
What time of day it is worst. And what you have stopped doing since the accident, which tells your doctor more than a pain score.
Most people under-report, and there is a good reason for it. Sitting still in a quiet exam room is when almost every crash injury feels its best, so it’s easy to forget what mornings are like. Write it down at home the night before instead. A list made at 9 pm catches what a 2 pm appointment will not.
Things patients leave out that we always want to hear: jaw pain or a clicking jaw, ringing in the ears, sleep that broke after the crash, trouble concentrating at work, unusual irritability or tiredness, and anxiety about getting back behind the wheel.
Not always. We order imaging only if the exam points to a specific concern. X-rays show broken bones and spine alignment, while MRI shows the discs, ligaments, and nerves an X-ray cannot see. Many crash patients are diagnosed and treated on the physical exam alone, which is a good outcome and not a shortcut.
Digital X-ray is available in our clinics, so ruling out a fracture does not cost you a separate trip. Its limitation is useful to know: a clear film rules out a break and tells you nothing about soft tissue, which is where most crash damage lives. That’s why having a normal X-ray doesn’t always mean you’re uninjured.
We won’t order unnecessary scans. Imaging without a clear question usually turns up something minor that has been sitting there for years, and chasing it sends your treatment in the wrong direction while you pay for it.
Our MRI is at the University Boulevard South location in Jacksonville. There is no MRI at our Yulee clinic, so when your exam calls for one, we book you there instead of referring you outside the practice. It is a drive south down I-95, and we only send you when the answer will change your treatment.
It’s important to explain how this works, since it affects your care.
Most crash patients in Yulee never need an MRI at all. Usually, we diagnose and start treatment right here in Yulee, so most of your care stays local. Imaging enters the picture when symptoms point to a disc or a nerve root, when weakness is present, or when you are not improving the way the exam predicted.
At that point, the question is whether the scan will change what we do. If it will, the drive is worth making, and we schedule it. If it will not, we say so and carry on treating you here.
Because the MRI is at our own location, your doctor can read your results directly and compare them to your exam. You are not waiting on a report from an outside facility written by somebody who never met you, and you are not repeating your history to a third practice.
Digital X-ray, nerve conduction studies, EEG, and brain injury evaluation are all available without leaving the practice, and the great majority of what a crash exam needs is in that list.
Your treatment plan depends on your exam results, not a one-size-fits-all approach. Two people with the same crash and different findings get different plans.
Hands-on care and rehab do most of the work for most crash patients: chiropractic adjustments for restricted joints, soft-tissue work for the muscle that tightens around them, then physical medicine and rehab to rebuild strength and load tolerance. Where a disc is involved, spinal decompression takes pressure off the affected level.
Where pain is not settling, we have laser, shockwave, TECAR, HEIT, electrical muscle stimulation, and therapeutic ultrasound, and our medical doctor can add injections or prescriptions. Regenerative options, including our Biotarget Therapy program, start with a medical evaluation. Telemedicine covers follow-ups that do not need an in-person exam.
We review the plan as you go. If you’re not improving as expected, we’ll adjust your treatment instead of repeating the same plan.
Most crash patients with muscle and joint injuries improve over four to eight weeks. Disc and nerve injuries take longer and run less predictably. Your doctor gives you an estimate after the first exam and rechecks your measurements as you go, so the plan matches how you are actually responding.
Treatment usually follows a shape. The first two weeks are shorter, more frequent visits aimed at calming things down and restoring movement. Weeks three to six shift toward strengthening, visits spread out, and you take on more of the work at home. After that, most people are done or close to it.
Two things slow recovery more than anything else: resting too much, which weakens the muscles supporting your spine, and quitting the home exercises the moment the pain eases. That second one is the most common reason somebody is back a year later with the same neck.
Your medical record is the official account of your injuries, and others may review it later.
Four things belong in it from day one: how the crash happened in enough detail to picture it, what the exam actually found and not only what you reported, your baseline measurements, and the treatment plan. If you have to miss two weeks because of childcare, a work trip, or an unrelated illness, tell us. We’d much rather document the reason for any gaps in care than leave them unexplained.
We release your records to you or your attorney whenever you ask. We focus on your treatment; you handle the insurance claim.
Within 14 days. Under Florida’s no-fault law, your auto insurance covers medical care only if you receive initial services and care within 14 days of the accident. Sooner is better, and not only for the paperwork. Coming in early gets your symptoms on record while they are still developing.
There is a second step most people never hear about. Your policy can pay up to $10,000 in medical benefits, but only once a medical doctor, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner confirms you had an emergency medical condition. Without that confirmation, insurers usually cap it at $2,500. We have both on staff, so that step happens inside the practice.
Bring your auto insurance card and your health insurance card if you have one. If you have neither, we will still see you, and our team will go through your options before treatment starts.
Come to a follow-up appointment anyway. The emergency room is designed to find and treat immediate dangers, like bleeding or broken bones. It isn’t set up to diagnose muscle, joint, or disc injuries that show up later, which is why many crash patients leave with instructions to follow up.
Bring whatever they gave you: discharge paperwork, X-ray or CT images, and anything you were prescribed. We will start from what is known instead of repeating tests you have already had.
An emergency room visit usually counts as your initial care under the 14-day rule. Call 904-783-0008 if you want that checked against your policy.
Part of a doctor’s job is telling you when you are in the wrong building. These are the symptoms where the answer is an emergency room, not us.
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if you have loss of consciousness, a headache that keeps getting worse, repeated vomiting, confusion or trouble speaking, numbness or weakness in an arm or leg, loss of bladder or bowel control, severe or quickly worsening pain, chest pain, or trouble breathing.
Nothing on this page should slow that decision down.
For everything else, come and see us.
A few questions sort out most clinics quickly.
| Clinic | Address | Weekday hours |
|---|---|---|
| Yulee | 57 Homegrown Way, Unit 601 | 8:00 am to 7:00 pm |
Our Yulee clinic serves Yulee along with Wildlight, Callahan, Hilliard, Amelia Island, and the surrounding Nassau County communities.
No appointment needed on weekdays, and we see patients with or without insurance. On weekends, call 904-783-0008 and ask for a same-day visit. After-hours on-call assistance with our doctors is available.
The doctor you see is the same across the practice, working from the same notes and the same treatment plan. If you commute south into Jacksonville and one of our clinics there is easier on a weekday, your chart moves with you, and nobody asks you to explain the crash again from the beginning.
No, come straight to our Yulee clinic during weekday hours; no referral and no appointment.
In Florida, your own auto insurance covers medical care after a crash if you are seen within 14 days. We also see patients without insurance and explain your options first.
Possibly. X-rays show bone. Discs, ligaments, muscles, and nerves do not appear on them, and those are the tissues most often hurt in a crash.
Our MRI is at the University Boulevard South location in Jacksonville. We book you there when your exam calls for one, and most patients never need it.
Yes, chiropractic physicians, a medical doctor, and a nurse practitioner all work from the same treatment plan.
Yes, bring any records or images you have, and we’ll continue from there instead of starting over.
Yes, drivers, passengers, cyclists, pedestrians, motorcycle riders, and rideshare passengers all get the same care.
We opened in 2010 because crash injuries kept getting missed. Soft-tissue damage does not show on an X-ray and does not look serious on day one, so it gets overlooked in a clinic seeing everything else that afternoon.
So we built clinics where treating pain and injuries is all we do. Injury Care Centers has chiropractic physicians, a medical doctor, and a nurse practitioner working together, digital X-ray in the building, MRI at our University Boulevard South location, and treatment starting on your first visit. Dr. Chris Hopkins is the chiropractic physician covering Yulee.
You have 14 days to protect your medical benefits, and less time than that before the details start to blur. Come to Homegrown Way on any weekday, or call 904-783-0008, and we will tell you what to bring. Addresses and hours for all our locations are on the site.
Last reviewed: August 2026
Medically reviewed by Dr. James Gilas, MD, Florida license no. ME92179
This page is general information and not a substitute for an exam by a clinician. If you have emergency symptoms, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Florida law described here is general information, not legal advice. Deadlines and rights depend on your situation, and a lawyer is the right person to advise you on a claim.
