Baptist Health, UAB Create Multispecialty Clinic
At the bottom of a poster announcing the UAB Multispecialty Clinic at Baptist Medical Center South, in small print was the following message: “Plus, more specialties to come.”
That’s right. The four specialties – urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and rheumatology – are just the beginning. The clinic will use the first and second floors of the building that houses the UAB School of Medicine, which is located on the third floor. There is plenty of space to add specialties, including a basement, and there is always the possibility of moving the regional medical school and using the third floor.
Ten doctors were recruited to Montgomery by Baptist Health, including three urologists and three rheumatologists, who not only help fill a shortage of specialists in those areas, but will also deal with an aging population.
Those doctors are working at the Multispecialty Clinic, which is owned and operated by Baptist Health. They will not only treat patients, but will teach students at the regional medical school. Although they work at a Baptist Health facility the doctors are actually University of Alabama-Birmingham employees. The longtime partnership between Baptist Health and UAB, which has existed for 40-plus years, has reached a new level with the announcement.
“This partnership – a partnership of community practice with an academic organization – brings the best and brightest to our community,” said Russ Tyner, president and CEO of Baptist Health. “We think that today marks an opportunity that is going to pay generational benefits to our community.”
It might have been the next logical step in the long-term partnership, but it is a revolutionary step.
“This is a pivotal day for Baptist Health and we will look back on it in a few years and realize how important this is, not only to Baptist Health, but to our patients and all of our medical staff,” said Baptist Health Chief Medical Officer Donovan Kendrick at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The UAB relationship has been incredibly important for Baptist Health.”
Tyner said that Baptist Health calls the Multispecialty Clinic an incubator. “This is where it started, but we think we can not only replicate this over the next two to three years, but can really build something that Central Alabama can see for generations.”
It was a quick turnaround from demolishing the existing facility and transforming it into the new clinic. “This went from an idea a little less than a year ago to concept and then became fruition,” Tyner said. “This is not achievable on faith. We didn’t tell ourselves that.
We said we needed to try this.” He said the clinic was finished on time and on budget in record time, which was about 10 months.
One patient was so overjoyed when the clinic opened that they cried, said Julia Henig, vice president of business development for Baptist Health. Other patients said thanks by the way of cakes.
The 10 physicians at the clinic were called “incredibly brave” by Kendrick, who said that they “decided to come to an unknown entity.”
