After Hours Clinic Still Going Strong After All of These Years
Words by Terrell Manasco | Image by Blakeney Clouse
If you’re from Walker County, Alabama, chances are you’ve been a patient at or taken a loved one to the After Hours Clinic on Birmingham Avenue in Jasper.
The clinic’s origins date all the way back to the mid-1960s, when the building was constructed on Birmingham Avenue as the offices for Drs. Gene Birdsong and Ed O’Rear. In the 1970s, Dr. Tom Camp and Dr. Alcus Ray Hudson joined the clinic, and the practice continued to grow.
As time went by, it became apparent to Dr. Birdsong that a downtown clinic was needed to treat common illnesses during evening hours due to overflow from People’s Hospital. With a staff comprised of medical residents from Carraway, UAB, and Druid City Hospitals, the building reopened as the After Hours Clinic in February 1983.
Fast forward to July 2014, when the husband-and-wife duo of Rick and Caron Bellestri purchased the clinic from Tony Graham, who had been the owner since the mid 1990s. A Sumiton clinic was added in 2007.
Today, the medical staff at After Hours consists of longtime clinic veterans Dr. Don Ashley and Dr. Daniel McDonald, as well as Lindsey Smith, Stephanie Williams, Michelle Hudson, and Nicole Walton, who serve as nurse practitioners.
Ashley, a native of Grenada, Mississippi, has been treating patients here for over 30 years and says he always wanted to go into medicine. “My Sunday school teacher was a family physician in Grenada,” he says. “I’d always planned on going back and joining him, but he was retiring by the time I got out of medical school.”
While completing his residency at Carraway Hospital in Birmingham, Ashley began moonlighting at After Hours Clinic and decided he loved the area. “I was with Carraway for 20 years doing primary care. The former owner talked me into coming here and doing nothing but urgent care five days a week. I’ve been doing that now for 12 years. I never did quite make it back to Mississippi,” he says.
Dr. Dan McDonald—“Dr. Mac” as most of his patients refer to him—grew up on a farm in the small town of Boelus, Nebraska. He graduated from dental school at the University of Nebraska in 1972, served in the U.S. Air Force until 1988, obtained his medical degree from St. George’s University (Grenada, West Indies) in 1996, then did family medicine residency at Carraway from 1997-2000.
“I started moonlighting here part-time in the evenings in 1997,” Dan says. “When I got out of residency, I started doing a cosmetic-type practice in Birmingham; i.e. cosmetic fillers, botox, and hormone replacement, but I still worked here because I enjoyed family medicine.”
Dan still does his cosmetic practice on weekdays and sees patients at the clinic Monday through Thursday evenings and all day on Sunday. “We have kind of a small-town atmosphere,” he says. “I have a lot of nice patients here that I’ve seen their children grow up and now their children are having children.”
Reflecting on his 20-plus years here and the recent changes made, a faint smile crosses Dan’s face. “Rick and Caron have continued the progress of the clinic and fixed it up and made it impeccable. I think we do great service for our patients.”
The Bellestris relocated to this area from Bonita Springs, Florida. They loved the community and Southern charm that Alabama had to offer. Though they both had extensive business experience, they knew their work was cut out for them to transform the business in a variety of ways.
Sparing no expense, Rick and Caron completely renovated both the Jasper and Sumiton clinics. At the Jasper clinic alone, a new roof and new HVAC units were installed, and the entire facility was updated from floor to ceiling. Restrooms were modernized and a children’s playroom was added in the waiting area.
In short, the Bellestris believe in putting quality first. “I put myself in the patients’ place,” says Caron. “I expect quality service with minimal wait times. Why shouldn’t they?” 78