Construction is underway on Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital's Orthopedic and Spine Tower, WAFF, an NBC affiliate, reports.
Five things to know:
1. The seven-story tower will take up an entire city block, featuring 375,000 square feet of surgical, patient care and specialized rehabilitation space.
2. The $250 million medical tower will feature 72 private patient rooms as well as 24 operating rooms for spine and orthopedic surgery.
3. Scheduled to open in 2021, the building will include large presurgical and postsurgical recovery areas. It will also house Huntsville Hospital's Joint Camp program for joint replacement patients.
4. When complete, it will be the largest medical construction project in downtown Huntsville since 1980. Robins & Morton is serving as general contractor.
5. "More patients are choosing to drive from 50, 60, 70 miles to Huntsville to have healthcare here. People who previously went to [Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Erlanger Health System, Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center or University of Alabama at Birmingham] are choosing to come here because we have the services where we can treat anyone that those facilities can treat," Huntsville Hospital Health System COO Jeff Samz told WAFF.