Daylight Savings Time may be one reason for losing sleep these days, but a soon-to-be new service offered through Atmore Community Hospital may be able to help if other issues are causing the loss of sleep.

Bill Perkins, administrator at ACH, said a new facility is being prepared in anticipation of offering services typically found in larger cities.

“We are continuing to increase services we feel the community needs,” Perkins said. “We will continue to expand our array of services when possible.”

The Center will be housed in the former Greenlawn Pharmacy building just across Medical Park Drive from Atmore Community Hospital and should be ready for occupancy later this spring.

“We don’t have a specific date for opening the Center at this point,” Perkins said. “We hope to have all of the regulatory issues and contracts with other entities worked out as soon as possible. We do expect to be open this spring.”

Perkins said partners will be in place to control the Center with diagnosis and treatment implementation.

“We are partnering with folks who are good at their jobs,” Perkins said. “Our partners will come in with staff and equipment to offer the best care for sleep disorders.”

Although the Sleep Center will be a main component of the facility, Perkins said other services will also be offered at the location.

“The facility will be known as MedPlus,” Perkins said. “It will offer the services for sleep disorders and there will be enough room to offer more outpatient services.”

Among services expected to be offered at the MedPlus facility will be urgent care services and other specialty clinics.

“With services needed in Atmore more space is needed for various reasons,” Perkins said. “We just don’t have enough room for any additional outpatient clinic services at the hospital. With this new facility we can expand our services to meet the community’s needs.”

Perkins said with the new space, additional services may be available to keep local residents at home to receive care in a variety of areas.

“We want to have as many specialists coming to Atmore as we can to keep our people from having to go out of town for services,” Perkins said. “We already offer a good variety of specialists coming here to provide care. We want to continue to attract specialists here and this will be an opportunity for us to achieve that goal.”

MedPlus will also allow physicians to offer urgent care for those who may otherwise have to go to the ACH emergency room for treatment.

“We have a great need for an urgent care facility,” Perkins said. “Typically the emergency room is the only opportunity some folks have to seek care, especially after hours.”

Perkins said the urgent care portion of the new facility will give residents an option to seeking care for non-emergency situations outside the emergency room setting.

“Sometimes if people come to the ER for medical needs they have to wait while physicians care for those who have an emergency medical need,” Perkins said. “By providing an urgent care facility, those people won’t have to wait for long periods of time before seeing a physician. The urgent care availability will allow us to get folks to the most appropriate level of care for their needs. This helps with our concern about people having to wait long periods of time for care.”

Operating hours of the MedPlus facility will be established once the center opens,” Perkins said.