The fall 2015 opening of Grandview Medical Center will bring convenient access to quality hospital care to people who live and work along Birmingham’s U.S. 280 corridor, along with thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue.
Several months ahead of schedule, the grand opening of this new hospital and an adjacent physician office building is planned for October of this year. “Brasfield & Gorrie and A.G. Gaston have had great support from the various subcontractors and have been able to accelerate their work, so we have been able to change the anticipated move date to October 10th. That puts us several months ahead of schedule,” says Trinity CEO Keith Granger.
Cahaba Center at Grandview contains approximately 103 acres with about 65 of those acres open to development. The hospital parcel, containing the hospital, parking garage and Physician Office Building (POB), is on 13.5 acres.
The 200,000-square-foot POB will house both single-physician practices as well as multi-specialty clinics. Daniel Corporation owns and will manage the leasing of the POB space. “We are currently working with Trinity to lease space to physicians in the new office building,” says Jim Adams, Senior Vice President for Daniel Corporation. “We hope to open the hospital and the POB simultaneously. We want to relocate many of the physicians who are currently on the Trinity campus as well as others and hope to have a good mix of specialists and family practice.”
Grandview Medical Center will have several unique features that will be both attractive and convenient to patients. “The design of the campus and its focus on way-finding throughout the facilities is unique,” Adams says. “We want to make sure that when you get to the campus, you can park easily and find where to go in the hospital and POB.”
The 3,000-space parking garage will offer plenty of parking for visitors. For easy location of your car, each level of the deck will have different Birmingham-area themed markings and color codes as well as digital directional signs. The design of the elevator bank will make it easy to enter and exit both the hospital and POB from the garage. “Once you park, designated elevators will take you straight to either building. Elevator lobbies will make it easier to find physicians. No matter where you need to go, it is a straight shot from the parking garage,” Adams says.
Local art and photography will be used throughout the hospital, and the patient rooms will convey a warm, hotel-type environment. “With the landscape of the area, patients and visitors will enjoy wooded scenery up and down the Cahaba River,” Granger says. “They also can see pleasing views toward the Galleria area and up to the Summit, as well as southeast down 280.”
Trinity Chief Operating Officer Drew Mason says the new hospital will employ new technologies that will bring a high level of patient service. For example, the operating rooms will be equipped with a fully integrated Stryker operating system, and physicians and staff can access medical imaging and PACS systems to view operational information or medical records through digital monitors. “This integration of services will be a positive thing, because patient experience and clinical outcomes are a big focus of the new facility,” Mason says.
“The patient experience will focus on three main systems: digital directional way-finding signage, patient interactive television, and electronic patient in-room communication boards,” Mason says. Medical communication systems will be accessible through digital technologies in treatment areas and in patient rooms, and digital signage will help visitors and patients find their way around the facilities.
Patient rooms and a large number of medical/surgical rooms will have digital capability that will allow patients to access television, internet, and free movies through a 42-inch television mounted on the wall. “They also will be able to order dietary items online, purchase items from the gift shop, and access information from our service lines and the patient portal,” Mason says. “From a safety standpoint, we can also pull information that lists food allergies or access patient education materials based on the patient’s medical records.”
Another 42-inch monitor in each room serves as a digital white board that lists the names of the patient’s nurse and physician, types of allergies, and standard precautions of which the staff needs to be aware. “This is new technology, and I’m not aware of any other hospital in the Southeast that has this exact system,” Mason says.
Patient rooms and other areas in the facility are designed to minimize infection, maximize communication, and make sure patients and their families receive information regarding their disease or condition. Also, the design of the building allows for major services to be in close proximity to one another. Convenience for the patient is also important. For example, on the operating room floor, a patient comes into one room for pre-registration, preparation, surgery, and recovery.
“We are trying to keep services as consolidated and convenient as possible,” Granger says. “For emergency room patients, the radiology department, cardiac catheterization lab, and other services often used for ER visits are all close to one another. From a patient flow perspective, we think that will work well.”
Granger expects the new medical center to have a wide-reaching impact on the health care community. “From a long-term perspective, we are moving where many in Birmingham have moved over the last 10 to 20 years. By moving outside the I-459 perimeter, we are putting ourselves in a convenient location for households that have grown in and around the Birmingham area,” he says. “We are in close proximity to interstates 459, 59, 20, and 65. Because the interstate system is so well connected, people who take the I-459 perimeter will find themselves only a few minutes from our new location.
“I believe we will expand the footprint of Birmingham as a health center in Alabama and perhaps other states, particularly for those whose subspecialty services are not typically available in smaller hospitals,” Granger says. “We want to create our future by working in those arenas, connecting ourselves, the state, the region, and the Southeast.”
Granger expects Grandview Medical Center to become a flagship referral source for many people in our state and around the country. “It is a site where we can teach and educate physicians and recruit the best and brightest to be part of our medical staff. We expect our role to become more visible and to expand the Birmingham footprint of health care to a larger market and actually be complementary to other services that currently exist in our community,” he says. “We don’t see this as anything but a plus-plus going forward, and we look forward to taking a leadership role as part of that system going forward.”
