September 9, 2021
University Medical Center opened a location in Carrollton, Alabama, in August to provide primary health care services to the rural Pickens County community.
UMC-Carrollton is open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 am to 5 pm. The clinic, located at 289 Robert K. Wilson Drive, Suite C, will provide local health care to the community after the Pickens County Medical Center in Carrollton closed in January 2020.
“University Medical Center has long had a presence in Carrollton, Alabama, but with the closure of the hospital there in early 2020, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we believed it was imperative to increase the care we provide there,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences, which operates UMC.
Services offered are family medicine, sports medicine and obstetrics care, colonoscopy consults and EGDs. The health-care providers at UMC-Carrollton include Drs. Catherine Skinner and Russ Guin, as well as Lauren Holdefer-Penuel, a physician’s assistant, and Rebecca Richardson, a nurse practitioner.
Skinner currently cares for patients in Carrollton. She has provided once-a-week prenatal and obstetrics care for residents there for more than a decade.
Friend said access to primary health care services is important, especially for rural communities in the state, where such care is often in short supply.
“Carrollton is not unlike other rural communities in Alabama, which suffer from a lack of health-care services and providers, and that struggle with hospital closures,” Friend said. “Our mission at UMC is to help improve the health of individuals and communities in rural Alabama, and expanding access to care in Carrollton, particularly primary health care, is one way we are meeting that mission.”
UMC is the largest multi-specialty medical practice in West Alabama with locations in Tuscaloosa, Northport, Demopolis, Fayette and now Carrollton, and more than 150,000 annual patient visits.
UMC-Carrollton is accepting new patients. To schedule an appointment, call (205) 463-1350.
