After evaluating population growth and community needs in the Pell City area, as well as the age of the current St. Clair Regional Hospital, officials at St. Vincent’s decided a new facility was needed to meet the health care demands of area residents. Construction began in early 2010 on the new $31.4 million St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital, which will offer state-of-the-art technology for inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care.
Its location right off Interstate 20 is adjacent to a 225-bed nursing home and will provide easier access to health care for residents of that facility. A 45,000-square-foot medical office building will also be built at the site.
John O’Neil, President and CEO of St. Vincent’s Health System, says the 40-bed, 79,000-square-foot, two-story facility is expected to be completed in the fall. While not all procedures will be available at the hospital, O’Neil says that 85 to 90 percent of patient care will be delivered at the new facility.
The hospital is designed so that ambulatory, outpatient, and inpatient care services are delivered in separate areas of the hospital. “There will be easy access to all three, but they won’t be mixed together in same areas,” O’Neil says. “The Emergency Department will have easy access to scanners and MRI while in patients will be upstairs in a quieter environment.”
The hospital also will house space for clinical education classes and will work with the nursing program at Jefferson State Community College. The chapel in the new facility represents the St. Vincent’s mission and values, O’Neil says. “We are a faith-based facility rooted in the healing faith of Jesus, and we want the new hospital to be focused on that as well as the modern technology that will be available,” he says.
The new hospital will be a significant economic driver for the community and will employ more than 600 staff members when complete. “This is a significant commitment to the community which has helped make this hospital a reality,” O’Neil says. “We are excited about the opportunity to continue providing the compassionate care that is uniquely St. Vincent’s.”
Madison Hospital
A new hospital in the City of Madison will bring health care to its residents and to communities in western Madison County when it opens in early 2012. Owned and operated by Huntsville Hospital, the new $71 million, 60-bed Madison Hospital will feature a tower that can house up to 100 beds. Plans include a second tower that can house another 100 beds when the first tower reaches capacity.
Madison recently was named the number one fastest growing area in Alabama, and Madison Hospital President Mary Lynne Wright says that growth has created the need for the new hospital, which will employ the latest technology in patient care. Services will include a 24/7 emergency department, medical/surgical nursing units with an intensive care unit, and non-invasive cardiology care. State-of-the-art labor and delivery suites and patient rooms will be available as well as endoscopy and medical imaging services, a sleep center and a laboratory.
“It is rare to be able to build a new hospital from the ground up in Alabama, and we are glad to have this opportunity,” Wright says. “The people of Madison have embraced this project. It’s been a 10-year process and we all are excited to be a part of the effort.”
Baptist Health Primary Care Center
Baptist Health Systems is close to completing a construction project that will bring urgent care, primary care, and specialty medicine to Chelsea, one of the fastest growing cities in Shelby County. The clinic, located on Highway 280 at County Road 39, will be part of a 14,400-square-foot facility available to health care-focused tenants only. Baptist will lease 5,400 square feet of the initial phase of the development for its clinic, according to Chris Price, Administrative Director of Surgical Services at Shelby Baptist Medical Center.
The building will sit on land owned by Baptist Health Systems and ground leased to Wayfarer, LLC, a development company owned by Payson Daugherty, MD, DO. Daugherty currently operates The Narrows Clinic, which provides urgent medical care. Daugherty’s group will occupy 1,790 square feet in the new Chelsea development for another urgent care clinic. The Narrows Clinic will remain open.
Price says a primary care physician will be recruited to occupy the new Baptist primary care clinic, and the specialty clinic will be rented to Baptist-affiliated specialists. “This rotating specialty clinic is a unique way to introduce a rotation of different specialties to the area and connect physicians in a growing market,” Price says. Completion is scheduled for June 2011.