2015 year in preview: Brookwood freestanding emergency department

Work begins this month on the new freestanding emergency department (FED) located at the U.S. 280-Highway 119 intersection. Stephen Preston, Brookwood Medical Center’s vice president of external affairs, said the FED is breaking ground and tentatively planning to begin operation in August 2015.

The completed FED will span 24,000 square feet and include 11 exam rooms, one trauma room and full diagnostic abilities. It will be a Level III trauma center like the main Brookwood hospital, which means it will have capabilities for surgery and most trauma care but will not have a complete set of specialists on site. Preston said the FED will employ between 40 and 45 people.

The FED will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with specialized communication lines between it, Brookwood Medical Center and ambulances stationed onsite in case patients need immediate transport.

Preston said the FED will be entering a market with around 30,000 emergency room visits per year, though he does not have estimates of how many people the FED will serve. Bringing emergency care to 119, however, will take a load off other emergency rooms in Birmingham and will reduce transport time for patients.

“We’re very optimistic and hopeful that it will be a great benefit for the entire community,” Preston said. “Brookwood’s had a long tradition and history of serving patients on the 280 corridor.”

Brookwood already runs primary care offices and clinics along 280, and Preston said the FED will complement these services as well as existing urgent care clinics. The site for the FED was also carefully chosen to make sure it would not cause traffic backups. By the time the FED opens, a widening project on 119 will be complete, mitigating the effects of traffic from staff and patients.

“We did a lot of work on the appropriate location,” Preston said.

In November, Brookwood filed a lawsuit to stop construction of an ambulatory surgery center at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen, which is part of a larger expansion. The lawsuit alleges that St. Vincent’s, also located at the 280-119 intersection, did not follow regulations in its construction process. Preston declined to comment on the lawsuit.