December 12, 2008
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Women and Infants Center has received a $75,000 donation from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club as part of its State Giving Program.
The under-construction, 400,000-square-foot UAB Women and Infants Center, scheduled to open in 2010, will provide medical evaluation and private inpatient rooms for expectant mothers experiencing both normal pregnancies and severe pregnancy-related complications, for both healthy and critically ill newborns and for women undergoing gynecological procedures or treatment for gynecologic cancers.
The new center will house maternity facilities including private labor, delivery and recovery rooms (LDRs) offering a homelike, family-centered birthing experience with high-tech capabilities, and Caesarean delivery facilities should the need arise. The UAB Women and Infants Center also will have a new Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit/Continuing Care Nursery (RNICU/CCN), Alabama's only comprehensive RNICU. With this facility, UAB will have one of the largest RNICU/CCN units in the nation and one of the first hospitals in the Southeast to offer single room neonatal intensive care. This new center will fully integrate under one roof UAB's internationally-recognized high-tech and highly specialized services for women and infants.
As part of the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club gift, one of the LDRs will be named in its honor.
"Wal-Mart and Sam's Club is honored to be part of this wonderful program and to have the opportunity to give back to the community here in Birmingham, and the surrounding region," said Glen Wilkins, senior manager of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. "We look forward to seeing the positive impacts that these great facilities will have on the families that it will be served."
Wal-Mart and Sam's Club operates six discount stores, 90 Supercenters, five Neighborhood Markets, 13 Sam's Club outlets, and three distribution centers in the state of Alabama and employs more than 38,000 associates in Alabama.
The Wal-Mart and Sam's Club State Giving Program is a new program designed to increase the impact of The Wal-Mart Foundation's giving. Through the State Giving Program (SGP), Wal-Mart and Sam's Club awards grants at the state and regional level to support unmet needs that are not directly addressed by its other programs. To help facilitate the grant-making process, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club has created State Giving Advisory Councils to represent each state, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The advisory councils determine the needs within their states, review all eligible grant applications and make funding recommendations to the foundation. The councils are made up of associates, who represent a variety of different internal business units. These associates are not members of the foundation staff, but work closely with the foundation staff to ensure that all funding recommendations meet the program's guidelines. The foundation has final approval on all funding recommendations made by the council. The areas of focus for the State Giving Program include education, job skills training, health and wellness, and environmental sustainability.
"The Women and Infants Center is an important addition to UAB Hospital. This center will benefit the thousands of patients and their families our physicians, nurses and staff care for each year," said hospital CEO Michael Waldrum, M.D. "We appreciate the generosity of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club and their associates in helping us support our mission of providing the highest level of care to our patients."