Baptist Health System aims to build hospital in Hoover

If Birmingham’s Baptist Health System (BHS) gets its way, then the Birmingham suburb of Hoover will get a hefty gift soon — its first hospital.

The proposed facility, Hoover Baptist Medical Center, will be “an opportunity” for BHS to further its mission “by filling a void in health care for the people of Hoover,” said Shane Spees, BHS president and chief executive officer.

While Hoover is the sixth-largest city in the state, it is the largest without its own hospital, Spees noted. More than 70 smaller cities have their own hospitals and four locations have two.

“Hoover is a high-growth area, and there is a poor distribution of hospital beds in the Birmingham area — 80 percent of them are within a five-mile radius of downtown Birmingham,” he explained. “Building this hospital will be a major move to improve health care in the area.”

It will also improve the distribution of beds — up to 140 licensed beds earmarked for Hoover BMC would come from Princeton Baptist Medical Center in western Birmingham, a facility that has licensing for 499 beds but only uses 300.

But Spees noted, “This is no indication of downsizing Princeton. In fact, we have plans to expand there in other ways.”

On July 22, BHS filed a request with the State Health Planning and Development Agency to amend the State Health Plan to allow the transfer of beds to the Hoover hospital. If approved, then the new facility will be built at the intersection of Interstate 459 and Highway 150 in place of the current Princeton Hoover Baptist Medical Center, an outpatient facility built in 2006.

BHS currently has four hospitals — Princeton, Citizens (Talladega), Shelby (Alabaster) and Walker (Jasper) Baptist medical centers — which is down from the 10 hospitals the system owned just five years ago.

In the wake of a money crunch that has forced it to sell off six facilities since 2003, Spees said the system is in much better shape and is making moves toward expansion in high-growth areas like Hoover.

For more information on Hoover BMC, visit www.weneedahospital.com. (TAB)