By The Birmingham Times

Cooper Green Mercy Health Services is changing its urgent care hours beginning Friday Sept. 27.

Effective on Saturday, Sept. 28, the Urgent Care Clinic will no longer be open on the weekend (currently open 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday) and Monday through Friday it will be open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (currently 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.).

Cooper Green has maintained extended hours in order to accommodate as many patients as possible. After monitoring patient traffic for the last year Cooper Green found that Urgent Care only treats an average of three to four patients a day on the weekend. During the week after 4 p.m., it has only seen an average of four patients. In addition, overall Urgent Care volume is down by 21 percent year-to-date.

“While we always want to serve the needs of our patients, after monitoring it for a sufficient period of time, we believe the staffing burden outweighs the number of patients utilizing our Urgent Care services,” said Deputy Director of Cooper Green, Laura Hurst. “Other contributing reasons include the Urgent Care competition in the area – there are several competing facilities, and we don’t have the marketing dollars to be competitive. We of course want to be available to our patients, but we also have to be financially responsible. We would rather put our resources where patients most need them.”

Hurst added that Cooper Green is using the Community Assessment produced by the Health Department and other community resources to determine what partnerships Cooper Green can enhance to better meet the needs of our population, which are not always health care needs, but services that contribute to health.

About Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Cooper Green was formed in 1972 to serve the residents of Jefferson County with comprehensive, high quality healthcare, regardless of their ability to pay. It provides primary care, behavioral health, plus care in 19 different medical specialties for patients. The vision of Cooper Green is to be a leader of equitable and just community healthcare, that strives to positively impact the health of the citizens of Jefferson County.

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

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