Shelby Baptist Medical Center

Shelby Baptist Medical Center (originally Shelby Memorial Hospital) is the only full service hospital in Shelby County. It is located at 1000 1st Street North in Alabaster. Opening originally as a 35-bed hospital, subsequent expansions have raised its capacity to 192 beds.

The hospital was constructed by Shelby County with funding from the Hill-Burton Act sponsored by Alabama Senator Lister Hill. Construction for the two story hospital building began in 1958. The footprint of the original building, designed by Charles McCauley & Associates, measured 313 by 36 feet with a 51 by 40 foot wing on the rear. It was constructed by the Brice Building Company and dedicated on Sunday September 27, 1959 with Senator Hill and Congressman Armistead Selden in attendance.

The new hospital was overseen by the Shelby County Hospital Board, chaired by D. B. Smith. The hospital's staff administrator was Dean Upson. The first patient at Shelby Memorial was L. C. Hatcher, a Buck Creek Cotton Mills employee residing in Calera. The first baby delivered there was Shelby Jean Furline on September 29. Her mother was presented with a check for $25 to mark to occasion.

A $92 million expansion, dubbed the "South Tower", was begun in 2007 and opened on December 1, 2009. The 167,712 square foot expansion allowed the hospital to upgrade all of its 50 semiprivate rooms into 101 private patient rooms, of which 16 were dedicated to the intensive care unit. The project included a new $15 million energy plant, a 370-space parking garage, a new chapel, and additional new medical equipment.

References

• Seales, Bobby Joe (n. d.) "The Beginning of Alabaster". History of Shelby County website
• "Shelby Baptist sets expansion". (September 23, 2006) Birmingham News.
• Velasco, Anna (November 18, 2009) "Shelby Baptist Medical Center to open $92 million tower expansion." Birmingham News

External links

• Shelby Baptist Medical Center official website