By Bonita Wilborn
DeKalb Urgent Care & Wellness Clinic has been selected as the 2023 Business of the Year for the City of Rainsville. According to Sandy Goff, Director of the Rainsville Chamber of Commerce, the selection process consists of a letter sent to the Chamber member businesses requesting nominations for the “Business of the Year”. Once received, those nominations are presented to the Chamber Board, and a selection is made from the nominees.
Ashley Wigley-Thomas, Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner (CRNP) and owner of DeKalb Urgent Care & Wellness Clinic, said, “I am completely humbled and honored to be selected for the “Business of the Year” award. I have an outstanding team that functions to make every experience great. To God be the Glory! I am thankful for every employee who has gone all in to help make this facility great and execute my vision to the fullest extent. We strive for every patient encounter to be a next-level medical experience. I want every patient treated like family and to go the extra mile for each one every time like I would my very own family.”
Ashley is a native of Rainsville and a 2004 graduate of Plainview High School. She graduated in the top ten of the 2004 graduating class. After graduation, Ashely attended Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) on an Encore Singing Scholarship. After completing her time at NACC, she transferred to the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) on a Nursing scholarship. In 2007 Ashley received her bachelor’s in nursing while working at the UAB Emergency Department and Level 1 Trauma and Burn Center as a registered nurse. She didn’t stop there, though. She continued her education at UAB and received a Master’s in Nursing – Family Nurse Practitioner degree in 2011.
Ashley stated, “I knew early into my nursing career that emergency medicine was my passion. After finishing my education, I moved back home, where I served my community in Primary Care and Emergency medicine. Then in January 2020, we broke ground on DeKalb’s first true 12-hour urgent care facility. The clinic opened on July 13, 2020, and we hit the ground running. During the COVID pandemic, my team/facility helped serve the community to take pressure off our already overwhelmed local emergency departments and clinics.”
As a community member, this writer can certainly attest to that as my husband and I received care from the staff at DeKalb Urgent Care & Wellness Clinic when we had COVID in October 2020.
DeKalb Urgent Care & Wellness Clinic is open Monday – Saturday 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM offering urgent care services, sick care, laceration, burn/wound care as well as COVID testing, IV hydration/vitamin therapy, DeKalb’s first and only Cryo therapy chamber, flavored O2, and the newest X-ray technology.
They serve as one of the only clinics in DeKalb County to offer DOT physicals. A Registered Nurse is on staff every day for IV therapy.
The DeKalb Urgent Care & Wellness Clinic staff consists of the following: Ashley Cole MD – Medical Director, Ashley Wigley-Thomas CRNP – owner, Natalie Edmonson CRNP, Karen Shelley CRNP, and Office manager – Kristy Long LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse).
Other accolades received by DeKalb Urgent Care & Wellness Clinic include being named the 2022 Best Emergency Medicine Facility, and AshleyWigley-Thomas was named the 2022 Best Nurse Practitioner in DeKalb County.
Ashley explained, “I saw a need while working in the ER for an after-hours walk-in clinic that could handle urgent issues and help bridge the gap of care after Primary Care Physicians (PCP) close or if PCPs are unavailable to see a patient same-day or when an ER visit isn’t necessary/warranted. I’m here to bridge the gap.”
She concluded, “I am literally living my calling. I love my job and I love caring for patients. I love serving the community I was raised in and caring for the people who helped raise me. It’s my turn to give back to the community. I thank God for giving me and trusting me with this vision of an urgent care in Rainsville. We are a blessed clinic. We want to be hands and feet for Jesus.”