will open a $5 million, 17,000-square-foot UAB Medicine-Leeds clinic in the summer of 2015. The internal medicine and pediatric facility, which will be located off Rex Lake Road at Interstate 20’s Exit 140, will feature double-board-certified physicians who have appointments in the departments of Medicine and Pediatrics.A UAB Hospital outpatient diagnostic center, immediately adjacent to the clinic, will feature MRI, CT, ultrasound, digital X-ray, bone-density scanning and mammography. Full ambulatory lab services also will be provided on-site, and various UAB specialists will conduct weekly clinics there.
A groundbreaking for the facility is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17.
“We are excited about this project and what it means for the current and future patients of UAB Medicine,” said Reid Jones, chief operating officer for UAB Health System. “The eastern market is growing so much, especially along the I-20 corridor, and many of our patients from Leeds, Moody and Trussville and from Anniston and Oxford travel downtown to receive lab, X-ray and other services. UAB Medicine-Leeds will enable these patients to receive services in a location more convenient to them. It’s an expansion that is long overdue.”
Brasfield & Gorrie are directing the construction of the clinic, and Birmingham-based Johnson Development, which is consistently ranked by Modern Healthcare as one of the leading medical office building developers in the United States, is leading the planning, financing, development and management of the project.
UAB Medicine-Leeds will replace the current UAB Medicine-Moody clinic. Patricia Pritchett, senior vice president of Ambulatory Services for the UAB Health System and executive vice president of the UAHSF, says the move to the new Rex Lake Road location was necessary to satisfy customer needs and the expected growth at Exit 140.
“We are relocating to a rapidly growing area,” said Pritchett. “We’re going to be located right across the street from the Bass Pro Shops and just down the road from the Shops of Grand River. The city of Leeds has a new elementary school planned nearby, and a large residential community is planned. It is a great location for our patients.”
Stephen Russell, M.D., UAB Medicine-Moody lead physician, will lead the new clinic in its plans to provide enhanced care.
“The plan is to have four physicians and two nurse practitioners working together when we are fully functional,” Russell said. “Because we will have radiologists there with six primary care providers practicing simultaneously, we will have many of the diagnostic services you can find at The Kirklin Clinic radiology available to us in Leeds. When you add the specialty suite and the outpatient laboratory, it ensures our patients will continue to receive the quality of care they have come to expect from us.”