By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

HOOVER—Ground will be broken in the coming weeks for the construction of a freestanding emergency room in Shelby County, Brookwood Medical Center officials confirmed during a Jan. 15 meeting with the Hoover Medical Clinic Board.

The Medical Clinic Board unanimously approved the $19.5 million construction project during the Jan. 15 meeting.

“I think this is a wonderful thing,” Medical Clinic Board Chairman Charles Faulkner said of the project. “This is a ground breaking thing in Shelby County.”

Brookwood Medical Center CFO Doug Carter detailed plans for 23,000 square-foot facility located at the intersection of U.S. 280 and Alabama 119. The freestanding emergency medical center will be open 24 hours, seven days a week. It will include 12 treatment rooms and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography scan (CT scan) and ultra sound machines.

A helipad will also be constructed next to the building to airlift patients to nearby hospitals if necessary.

Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks, and the facility is expected to be complete “in the fourth quarter of this year, 2015,” Carter said.

Carter estimated the facility will serve around 15,000 patients in the first year alone.

“We’re really excited to get the project underway and serve the residents of Hoover,” Carter said.

Brookwood Medical Center originally submitted a Certificate of Need for the freestanding emergency room to the state in 2008, Carter said. The project was contested in court and upheld by the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals in 2013.

“We feel like a project like this, meeting emergency needs, is perfect to put in this area,” Carter said.

With the approval of the Medical Clinic Board, the project will appear before the Hoover City Council for approval.