{"id":7028208,"date":"2026-08-05T08:04:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/alabama-sabotaging-birmingham-healthcare-comebacktown\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T08:04:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:04:28","slug":"alabama-sabotaging-birmingham-healthcare-comebacktown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7028208","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Sabotaging Birmingham Healthcare | ComebackTown"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"UAB<\/a>
UAB Emergency Room Trailers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By David Sher<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently watching The Pitt<\/em>, the hit Max series that follows life and death, hour by hour, in a crazy-busy emergency room in a large fictional Pittsburgh hospital. <\/p>\n

This show will scare the living daylights out of you\u2014but at least you know it\u2019s a TV series, not an accurate depiction of how a real emergency department operates.<\/p>\n

It might not be a perfect depiction, however in some ways it\u2019s closer to reality than you\u2019d think. Unfortunately, this past year I\u2019ve had a good deal of personal experience in metro Birmingham emergency rooms with family members.<\/p>\n

Stacked Up in the Hallway<\/strong><\/p>\n

We see throughout the series that the Pittsburgh hospital often does not have rooms available for ER patients who need to be admitted, so they keep stacking up in the hallways.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not just dramatic license. It\u2019s what\u2019s happening, in some form, in Birmingham right now.<\/p>\n

UAB has tried to ease the crunch by adding two modular emergency department units outside its main building\u2014essentially trailers bolted onto the hospital to handle overflow. They expanded UAB\u2019s ED capacity by 50%. That\u2019s how serious the demand has become. But spending your worst day or days in a trailer in the parking lot isn\u2019t ideal, even if it beats a hallway.<\/p>\n

Where Are All These Patients Coming From?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of them are coming from rural Alabama, where hospitals keep closing or cutting services.<\/p>\n

Alabama has lost at least seven rural hospitals since 2010. Right now, the Alabama Hospital Association says 27 more rural hospitals are in danger of closing, with 19 of those at immediate risk. Eighty-three percent of Alabama\u2019s rural hospitals are operating in the red. Only 15 hospitals in the entire state still have full 24\/7 labor and delivery units\u2014meaning women in much of rural Alabama now drive an hour or more just to give birth.<\/p>\n

When a rural hospital closes or cuts its ER, the patients don\u2019t disappear. They drive to the nearest place that\u2019s still open\u2014often Birmingham. Danne Howard<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, who runs the Alabama Hospital Association, put it plainly: \u201cThe rural issue is not just about rural Alabama, it\u2019s about all of us. If the rural hospitals are not there stable enough, urban hospitals cannot absorb the volume.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the crushing burden landing on Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot My Problem\u201d\u2014Except It Is<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plenty of well-off Birmingham-area folks figure Medicaid isn\u2019t their problem. They have good insurance. They\u2019re not the ones who\u2019d qualify.<\/p>\n

But sick people have to go somewhere. When rural Alabama runs out of places to send them, a lot of them show up here\u2014in our ERs, our hallways, our trailers. Every insured and uninsured patient who can\u2019t get care closer to home and ends up at UAB or Brookwood or St. Vincent\u2019s adds to the wait you\u2019ll face next time you or someone you love needs emergency care.<\/p>\n

Uncompensated care costs get baked into everyone\u2019s bills and insurance premiums, whether you ever set foot in a Medicaid office or not.<\/p>\n

Alabama Is One of Only 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forty states plus Washington, D.C. have expanded Medicaid<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Alabama is one of just ten holdouts left\u2014along with Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.<\/p>\n

Alabama has turned down billions in federal funding that would cover 90% of the cost of expansion, year after year, while our rural hospitals collapse and our urban ERs absorb the fallout.<\/p>\n

A 2022 economic analysis by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama<\/a><\/strong><\/span> (PARCA) found that expansion would cost the state an average of $225 million<\/strong> a year\u2014but generate average savings of nearly $400 million<\/strong> a year through reduced state spending elsewhere and a stronger economy, for a net gain of over $170 million<\/strong> annually.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t charity. It\u2019s math. And it\u2019s costing all of us\u2014in dollars, in wait times, and in the kind of care we get when we\u2019re the ones lying in that hallway.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s time Alabama stopped being one of the ten.<\/p>\n

David Sher is the founder and publisher of\u00a0ComebackTown<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).<\/em><\/p>\n

Care about Birmingham,\u00a0sign up for ComebackTown newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com<\/p>\n

(Visited 590 times, 13 visits today)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UAB Emergency Room Trailers By David Sher I\u2019m currently watching The Pitt, the hit Max series that follows life and death, hour by hour, in a crazy-busy emergency room in a large fictional Pittsburgh hospital. 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