Wetumpka Pediatrics

Cliff Williams / TPI Ivy Creek Healthcare COO Amanda Hannon speaks about the ongoing renovations at Wetumpka Pediatrics. When done the facility will grow from nine exam rooms to 15 and add administrative space.

Renovations are underway to expand medical services at Wetumpka Pediatrics.

Currently four different medical providers are seeing children in nine exam rooms. The expansion will mean the facility will have 15 exam rooms and more administrative space.

“It means we can see more patients and give them more time,” Ivy Creek Healthcare chief operating officer Amanda Hannon said. “Currently the exam rooms are kind of small. We have a lot of families that come in with multiple children. The expanded facilities mean we will have more space to better serve them.”

Hannon said the clinic on U.S. Highway 231 sees children primarily insured by Medicaid. Given the low reimbursement of the government program, Ivy Creek has been able to maintain the clinic even though 90% of its patients are on Medicaid.

“We have a lot of community support and patient support,” Hannon said. “It’s allowed us to grow and to be able to sustain such a clinic.”

Ivy Creek recruits Medicaid insured pediatrics to the clinic as it fits the company’s mission of serving the community.

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“We want them to come here,” Hannon said. “We want to serve them. I know we've worked really hard to bring quality home care to the medically underserved, which I think is an area of health care that is not talked about enough.”

Hannon said Wetumpka’s designation as rural helps some with the reimbursement from Medicaid. 

“Our success is attributed to our providers and our support staff,” Hannon said. “They make or break you, and we've been blessed in that area.”

Construction is already underway and the clinic will be open during renovations. It will take about seven months to do all the work. When complete, Wetumpka Pediatrics will look much like many of Ivy Creek’s stand alone medical facilities.

“We should be done around early summer,” Hannon said. “We are having to make some alterations to the schedule. But the construction company that we're working with has been really good about it. They will be sealing off the parts of the building they are working in. We don't have to hinder our operations dramatically.”

 

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