On May 11, 2004, the University of Alabama Medical Center’s opened a new $13.5 million 77,000 square foot multi-specialty clinic and home of the College of Community Health Sciences (CCHS).

Groundbreaking for the $13.5 million 77,000 square foot facility took place on Nov. 24, 2002. Dr. William Curry, physician and dean of the College of Community Health Sciences, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa, said the new facility will help consolidate CCHS faculty, students and services into one building from the four they have occupied in the past.

The new facility offers medical care for all ages and has many special services: family medicine; pediatrics, including an ADHD clinic and follow-up care for infants who were in neonatal intensive care after birth; internal medicine; neurology; obstetrics and gynecology; and mental health services in the Betty Shirley Clinic for Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, which offers individual counseling, marriage and family counseling, psychiatric outpatient care, psychotherapy and drug therapy.

Lab testing and X-rays are completed on-site and nutrition therapy and dietary information are available for patients who need help managing diabetes, obesity and other medical conditions. Social services and a prescription drug assistance program also are provided.

The new building has a state-of-the-art medical information system. The paperless system makes it easier to improve education and clinical efficiency while providing the best possible care to patients. Curry said the students and residents involved in CCHS’s program will have had experience in the medical office of the future, which will be essential during their years of medical practice.