Photo by Erin Nelson.
Construction continues on the new Swaid Swaid Clinic at the Vestavia Medical Plaza along U.S. 31.
The new Vestavia Medical Plaza is still on track to open late this year after breaking ground last December.
The $21 million facility will be located at 1021 Old Montgomery Highway, the former home of Party Time. The center will include an ambulatory surgical center, a diagnostic center and office space for the 12 physicians who will occupy the facility. It will also include the Swaid Swaid clinic, which will relocate Dr. Swaid Swaid’s office, currently in the Vestavia Hills City Center, to the building. Swaid is overseeing the facility.
Swaid is a neurosurgeon who performs procedures at both Grandview Medical Center and Brookwood Hospital and also operates his clinic at the City Center.
The plan is for the facility to be a “one-stop shop” for medical care, where patients can see their doctor, receive a diagnosis and have outpatient surgery, all in the same place. The addition of the facility provides “convenience, comfort and value” to Vestavia residents, Swaid previously said.
Larry Taylor, Swaid’s partner, said the “state-of-the-art” facility is set to be finished in mid-November, with physicians moving in during the month of December. The clinic should open to the public shortly thereafter, he said, though no firm date has been set.
The weather has been good to the construction crews working on the facility, Taylor said. The facility is about 40,000 square feet, and the entire structure and frameworks have been completed, he said. As of mid-July, crews were working on developing the interior of the facility.
“It’s great,” Taylor said. “[We’re] right on schedule.”
Taylor said the first floor will be the surgical center and diagnostic center, with offices upstairs. There will be four operating rooms and two procedure rooms, along with physician office space. The facility will focus on spine, orthopedics, pain management and general surgery, and will provide those services in what Taylor called a “very cost-effective environment.”
Swaid previously said the goal is to provide “excellent … and accessible” care.
All of the physicians at the clinic will be specialists, Taylor said, so no primary care physicians will be provided at this time. Taylor said patients will be referred by other physicians to undergo surgery at the facility. The physicians will, more than likely, all be relocated from other hospitals and clinics.
While the facility will initially focus on various types of outpatient surgery, Swaid said he hopes in the future to add a physician to provide care for those needing an internal medicine doctor.
The facility is expected to provide between 35 to 40 jobs, Taylor said, and Swaid previously said he hopes it will create an economic impact in the city through the new employees and patients who will spend time and money in Vestavia Hills.
“It’s going to be a very modern and sharp-looking building,” Swaid said.
The facility is the first of its kind in the city, Swaid said.
“There’s a great deal of excitement building up around this project,” Swaid said.
