A woman in scrubs at Pulaski Urgent Care answers the phone. It's an action she does hundreds of times a day.

"Oh, I’m sorry," she says. "Our slots are full, but you can try again at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.”

What You Need To Know

  • Pulaski Urgent Care does about 50 rapid tests a day

  • The slots fill up first come, first serve over the phone each morning at 8 a.m.

  • People often call nonstop for the first few hours each day

 

Jill Bush is a radiologic technologist at Pulaski Urgent Care. Whenever she tells someone to call back, she specifically says 8 a.m. That’s when the phone lines, and also the rapid testing slots, open for the day.

“We have five lines, two or three people answering the phones at all times," Jill says. "As soon as you hang up, another one rings. It is nonstop for probably three straight hours.”

Before the pandemic, Pulaski Urgent Care would see 45 or 50 patients on their busiest days. Now that number is above 100 regularly.

One notable absence today is Office Manager Betty Richmond. She’s got the day off. It's the first time that’s happened in eight weeks. Even still, there’s no rest for the weary.

“I started out with business calls at 7 a.m.," Richmond says. "I answered about a hundred emails of people wondering why they can’t get through to my phone lines at the urgent care."

Thankfully, Betty has found time for her favorite activity: watching Hallmark movies and baking cookies with her granddaughter.

“I don’t ever measure," Betty says, eyeballing brown sugar for a batch of cookies. "Hailey is my taster, so she usually tastes everything after I’m done.”

The only time she’ll take recipe suggestions is when her husband Rodney wants white chocolate chips. He also works in the urgent care as a physician’s assistant, and like his wife, days without work are few and far between, but he’s not complaining.

“We’re working long hours and long days, but there’s folks that haven’t been able to work at all," Rodney says. "So when you think of it in those terms, it helps you put it into perspective.”

It can get overwhelming at times, but they’re all in it together.

“We’re a family here," Jill says. "We really like what we do.”

"All of our staff are family; they’re not just employees," Betty adds. "They are our extended family, and that’s how we treat them.”

Rodney is hoping to add a few more to that family, and hire a few more staff. He's also looking to install new phone lines to handle the increasing call volume.

The urgent care can test about 50 people a day due to limited supplies and personnel.