With the anticipated influx of visitors to the state for the April 8 total solar eclipse, CHI St. Vincent has announced several of its clinics will have expanded hours that weekend.
The system has six clinics in the area, three in Hot Springs and one each in Hot Springs Village, Mount Ida and Murfreesboro. While typically only the convenient care clinic at 100 McGowan Court and the clinic in Hot Springs Village, 4419 Highway 7 north, Suite 201, accept walk-in patients, all six will accept nonscheduled patients at some point during the weekend.
"We are actually having several of our clinics in town ... that we're going to keep open on the weekend and have them function as urgent care kind of walk-in clinics," Dr. Doug Ross, CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs president, said.
"Typically a lot of those clinics are closed on the weekend, but we're actually going to have them open throughout the weekend and on the eclipse day so that anybody that has a bump or a bruise can go into them."
Video not playing? Click here https://www.youtube.com/embed/N3K-FaryIBE
The primary care clinics at 1707 Airport Road and 2825 Albert Pike Road will accept walk-in patients on April 8 during their regular business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Mount Ida clinic, 320 Luzerne St., is expanding its hours into the weekend to accept walk-ins from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 6, noon to 3 p.m. on April 7, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 8.
The Murfreesboro clinic, 319 E. 13th St., will also be open to walk-in patients that weekend from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 6, 1-4 p.m. on April 7, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 8.
Ross said the clinics also have automated external defibrillators, so emergency personnel can use the clinic as "an intermediary" stop if traffic is problematic.
"If the local ambulance service is having difficulty transferring someone because of all the traffic, these clinics can be an intermediary step where that patient could potentially get some lifesaving stabilizing care while we're working on arrangements on getting those patients to the hospital," Ross said.
"So I think having those clinics open in nontraditional hours will really, really help offload our ER but also importantly, be very, very convenient for people across the community because we're very concerned that folks will not be able to timely navigate the streets," he said.
The convenient care clinic on McGowan Court is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the weekend, and the clinic in the Village is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
"The increase of visitors to the Natural State requires a heightened level of medical readiness," Chad Aduddell, CHI St. Vincent Market CEO, said in a news release.
"Providing extra access to health care is not just a matter of hospitality, but a crucial necessity. Our proactive approach will help promote a positive experience for our residents and guests, underscoring our commitment to the health and welfare of all," he said.
A full list of the system's clinics and adjusted hours for the eclipse weekend is located at:
https://tinyurl.com/3vwr4zcs