Open house rescheduled for Brookwood free-standing emergency department

Brookwood Medical Center rescheduled an open house for its new free-standing emergency department on Alabama 119 near U.S. 280 for Thursday.

The open house, which originally was scheduled for Tuesday, now will be held immediately following a 9 a.m. ribbon cutting on Thursday and will last until 2 p.m.

The open house will include tours of the $19 million 25,000-square-foot facility, which will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to handle medical emergencies, starting Nov. 30.

The facility has 12 single-suite beds, including designated rooms for trauma, obstetrics and mental health. There also is a pharmacy, a lab and a diagnostics center that includes mammography, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computerized axial tomography) and X-ray scans. The diagnostics center is expected to be converted for outpatient use in the coming months, pending appropriate licensing, Brookwood officials said.

Brookwood’s emergency department will be staffed by board-certified emergency medicine physicians, experienced registered nurses and full-time support employees, hospital officials said. A helipad and on-site ambulance can provide transportation to a hospital for more in-depth care if needed.

The open house was postponed from Tuesday until Thursday due to minor construction delays, according to a news release. The ribbon cutting already was scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m.

The Brookwood emergency department’s address is 7131 Cahaba Valley Road, just north of the road’s intersection with U.S. 280.