The University of Alabama Health Services Foundation will purchase 5 acres of land from the City of Gardendale, Alabama, to construct a medical office building. The facility would house primary care and family care services and improve overall access to medical care for residents of Gardendale/North Jefferson County. The property is in the Gardendale city center.
The medical office building will expand UAB’s existing Gardendale primary care practice and provide opportunities for new and existing patients to see UAB specialists without traveling to Birmingham. On-site laboratory services will allow for routine lab tests to be performed in Gardendale with results available to a patient’s UAB Health System physician regardless of their location. Digital radiology will also be available with all images interpreted by UAB radiologists.
Additionally, UAB Hospital has filed a letter of intent to initiate the Certificate of Need process with the State Health Planning and Development Agency to construct a freestanding emergency department in Gardendale.
The Gardendale/North Jefferson County area north of Birmingham is currently medically underserved, as there are no emergency medical services available between downtown Birmingham and Cullman, Alabama, a distance of 50 miles.
| The medical office building will expand UAB’s existing Gardendale primary care practice and provide opportunities for new and existing patients to see UAB specialists without traveling to Birmingham. |
“There is a tremendous need in Gardendale and along the entire I-65 corridor in North Jefferson County to bring emergency medical services to the growing population of these communities,” said Will Ferniany, Ph.D., CEO of the UAB Health System. “The medical office building and the freestanding emergency room will be important components in helping to alleviate some of the barriers to care that exist throughout the region.”
“This is an exciting partnership for the City of Gardendale,” said Gardendale Mayor Stan Hogeland. “Anytime a community can partner with a brand as well-respected as UAB is a positive move for that community. We see the creation of these new medical facilities as an investment in our city’s growth. We would anticipate enhancement of our overall quality of life, improved access to medical care, and the stimulated economic impact that comes with new jobs and new facilities.”
The UAB Hospital proposal, if approved by the SHPDA and the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System, would establish a facility modeled in size and equipment after the Medical West Hospital freestanding emergency department in Hoover, which opened in April 2015.