Ouachita County Medical Center is temporarily shuttering the OCMC Stephens Community Clinic due to the high amount of COVID10 testing needed at the Express Care Clinic and test site in Camden.
According to a post on the hospital’s Facebook page, staff from the Stephens clinic will be working at the testing site, effective immediately. The post goes on to say that patients with appointments at the Stephens clinic will be able to go to the Express clinic instead if they wish, and that the Stephens clinic’s closure will be re-evaluated in a few weeks.
“The increase in COVID-19 (cases) is certainly impacting our community. Due to the vast increase in COVID testing and provider visits at our Express Care Clinic and the test site at that same building, along with the fact that we have some COVID illnesses among our staff members, we are shifting those resources here to Camden on a temporary basis,” OCMC CEO Peggy Abbott said on Monday. “Our Express Care visits today have just increased with the number of individuals that need to be tested, and we need to get those large numbers of patients taken care of as quickly as possible. To do that we just needed to increase our staff.”
Abbott said the measure was temporary and that “when things lightened up” COVID-wise, the Stephens Clinic would reopen. Those patients being treated at the Stephens Clinic can receive care at OCMC.