UAB Hospital is the centerpiece of the UAB Health System. It is located in the Medical District of Birmingham on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus. Situated among major research centers and clinics, UAB Hospital, a 900-bed facility, provides patients with a complete range of primary and specialty care services, as well as the most up-to-date treatments and innovations in health care. As a University hospital, UAB Hospital is a major center for clinical research and the home of some of the top medical programs in America.
The UAB Hospital now has a new front door, assuring a commitment to world-class care for patients across Alabama and throughout the world, with the new UAB Hospital facility which opened in November 2004. The 885,000-foot, 11-story hospital includes 37 operating suites, 2 procedure rooms, 3 medical surgical units, 4 intensive care units — trauma and burn intensive care, surgical intensive care, neuroscience intensive care, and cardiovascular intensive care, and a 38,000 square foot emergency department.
The University Emergency Department is located on the first floor, along with the large public lobby and front door. The second floor serves as the main concourse into the University Hospital complex from the new visitor parking deck, with its primary entrance on 4th Avenue South.
The new hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art digital and wireless technology. Operating rooms contain voice-activated video technology allowing the surgeon to view x-rays, ECGs or pathology specimens without having to break scrub or leave the room. A new telemetry system will allow medical staff to monitor patients as they are transported to various areas throughout the hospital. Pyxis, an automated drug dispensing system, has been installed to help decrease medication errors.
Patient rooms are designed with great attention to detail, and the comfort and convenience of patients and their families in mind. Each room contains a wireless call system so patients can communicate directly with their assigned nurse, wherever he or she is located. Two “service columns” on each side of patient beds contain all the electrical equipment (lights, flat screen monitors, gases, IV poles) - uncluttering the rooms and making them safer. New "total-care" beds allow nurses to take patients from a horizontal position to a full sitting position without bending and lifting, making sitting up easier for patients and nurses.
Designed to be patient and family friendly, the new hospital has seating for more than 900 visitors, including large, open public accommodations centered around the atrium and skylight. The parking deck is conveniently located adjacent to the hospital with an entrance on 4th Avenue South with covered access to the hospital. An interior walkway located on the second floor provides access from anywhere in the medical center complex to and from the hospital. This new facility has become a model in design innovation for hospitals of the future.
A healing, stress-relieving garden for patients and their families to sit quietly among plants and seasonal displays of colorful flowers is located around the fifth-floor skylight, where it can be viewed from the floors above.
The hospital was established in 1945 as the teaching hospital for the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Today it is Alabama's major tertiary care center and a modern medical complex serving approximately 35,000 patients annually. The hospital continues to win praise in the community and around the world for providing excellent care. In fact, the book The Best in Medicine ranked UAB Hospital among the top three in the United States, and 74 physicians who work with UAB Hospital earned a prestigious listing in the second edition of the book The Best Doctors in America.
Mission
UAB Hospital is committed to providing a continuum of health services of the highest quality. The resources of the hospital and expertise of the staff are expected to set a national standard for health care delivery. These commitments recognize our primary responsibility to the citizens of Alabama and support the overall mission of The University of Alabama at Birmingham.