Excitement abounds for new Medical West campus, uncertainty looms for current hospital

Western Jefferson County will be home to the newest and most modern hospital in the Birmingham metro area and the state when the new Medical West facility opens in 2024.

Medical West Hospital Authority, an affiliate of UAB Health System, broke ground on the replacement 412,000-square foot, 9-story hospital in November and construction is expected to start in May, but the future of the current campus on Ninth Avenue is uncertain.

Medical West CEO Keith Pennington said the new 200-bed, 9-story hospital off Exit 1 of Interstate 459 in McCalla will have all the modern amenities patients expect, including private rooms and the latest technology such as robotics. It will also have more ICU rooms than the current campus, which is much needed in the Birmingham area and the state, he said.

Located at 4501 Bell Hill Road, the hospital with 200 beds will also have a 127,000-square-foot, 5-story medical office building on its campus.

The current facility, which was built in 1964, has been bought by UAB for $51 million and is being leased back to Medical West until it moves to the new campus in two years.

Discussions have begun on what to do with the 58-year-old campus after Medical West moves out, Pennington said. One option is turning it into a mental health facility, which is needed in Birmingham. Any change would require a certificate of need from state regulators, which is a challenging and lengthy process.

Medical West provides a range of health care services in Western Jefferson County. They offer primary care out of offices in downtown Bessemer, Hueytown, Park West, Hoover and in Vance and Tannehill. There is also a freestanding ER on Highway 150 in Hoover that was the first of its kind in the state.

The new facility is being built on a 46-acre development site that is unincorporated Jefferson County and therefore considered rural. That allowed Medical West to get financing through the USDA of $360 million toward the total investment of $400 million, Pennington said.

Jefferson County Roads and Transportation hosted a public information meeting this week to show the public plans for traffic improvements on Bell Hill Road that should alleviate already burden roads.