By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – With Trinity Medical Center’s move from Montclair Road to the new Grandview Medical Center facility on U.S. 280 a month away, the company’s leaders have been busy sharing information about the hospital’s new location and amenities.

Drew Mason, the company’s chief operating officer, spoke to a large group at a South Shelby Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Sept. 10 about Trinity officially becoming Grandview Medical Center and relocating all patients and staff on Oct. 10 to the new, 1-million-square-foot facility located near the Cahaba River on U.S. 280.

“It really is fantastic,” Mason said. “I cannot wait for us to get inside and show off this (facility).”

On moving day, about 30-35 ambulances will transport about four patients every 15 minutes. A nurse will accompany each patient in the ambulances, Mason said.

The hospital will implement its disaster model to coordinate moving day responsibilities with local agencies, and will treat the day as a training module for a “mass casualty” event, Mason said.

“We will have a process for evaluating patients before they leave and when they arrive,” he said.

Two “dress rehearsals” of moving day will be held on Sept. 15 and Sept. 24.

Mason mentioned the formation of two additional turn lanes at Grandview’s entrance as part of an Alabama Department of Transportation widening project on U.S. 280 between the Cahaba River and Interstate 459, adding, “We believe Cahaba River Road will be a major access point.”

“Our intersection was a priority in the widening project on 280,” he added.

The new campus includes the hospital, a 250,000-square-foot medical office building and an 11-level parking deck with about 3,000 parking spaces connecting the two facilities.

Each parking deck level will have a “theme” inspired by Birmingham landmarks: Vulcan, the Birmingham Barons, the Birmingham Zoo and the Alabama Theater.

Inside the hospital, amenities include 372 beds, 30 operating rooms, four intensive care units with 72 beds and a neonatal intensive care unit with 12 beds.

“We’ve got plenty of infrastructure in this facility,” Mason said. “(The facility is) 80-85 percent fully occupied in terms of design and construction.”

Other features are a two-story atrium, video capabilities throughout the hospital and CareBoard Digital White Boards for patient, family and clinician communications.

The nearly $280 million project started in December 2013.

Grandview will host an Employee Volunteer and Family Open House on Sept. 20 from 1-5 p.m., a Community Open House on Sept. 27 from 2-6 p.m., a first responders tour and lunch on Sept. 21, an MD office tour and lunch on Sept. 22, a media tour and lunch on Sept. 23 and an official ribbon cutting on Oct. 2.

“We have had an unbelievable team working on this for a year and a half,” Mason said. “It is exciting, it is huge, it is everything we’ve been working on for so long.

“That facility will stand and be there for a long time. We’re looking forward to taking this journey together.”