FROM STAFF REPORTS

NORTH SHELBY – Urgent Care for Children, a pediatric urgent care provider, opened in October 2017 to offer an emergency room alternative to families in need of medical care when their regular physicians’ offices are closed.

Following a busy flu season and the closure of a local after-hours option, UCC announced it is continuing to meet the rising needs of Birmingham’s pediatric patient population through the expansion of staff, clinic size and services.

Data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey shows that among children with at least one emergency room visit in the year prior, nearly 75 percent visited during the night or on a weekend.

After-hours and weekends can be a challenging time for children to fall ill due to the challenges of finding medical care providers available during these timeframes. Emergency room trips are necessary for emergent cases, but can be costly – both in time and money – for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries.

“We are overjoyed to see how much the community has entrusted us with the non-emergent care of its younger patients during the after-hours and weekends. Since opening, weekends have regularly proven to be an especially busy time, so we expanded our Saturday and Sunday hours earlier this year,” said Allury Arora, M.D., UCC co-founder. “Additionally, we have increased our staff by 50 percent and added another full-time pediatrician, Albert Copeland, M.D., Ph.D.”

Copeland is an esteemed pediatrician with years of pediatric emergency room and urgent care experience. He has instructed and practiced pediatrics in Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama.

Copeland transferred to Birmingham in March from a pediatric practice in Eufaula.

In addition to a new physician, UCC is also now offering an in-house pharmacy, Medicaid acceptance and additional exam rooms.

“We know that late night pharmacy visits can be difficult with a sick child, so we wanted to offer the most frequently needed prescriptions in-house,” Arora said. “We will do anything we can to attend to a child’s urgent care needs from head to toe.”

UCC is staffed daily with full-time pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners. The facility features comfortable play and seating areas, and a full range of health services, including X-ray and laboratory facilities.

UCC’s specialized team treats acute illnesses and injuries such as fever, allergies, coughs, colds, acute asthma attacks, flu, sprains/strains, earaches, bruises and lacerations, sore throat, insect bites and stings, vomiting and upset stomach, minor burns, diarrhea, rashes and other non-life-threatening conditions.

The first of many planned clinics, UCC is located in the heart of the U.S. 280 corridor at 500 Cahaba Park Circle, Suite 100, Birmingham, AL 35242.