New Building

Cooper Green celebrates first year in new facility

The year 2025 included many firsts for Cooper Green Mercy Health Services, but it was only the beginning.

In December 2025, Cooper Green celebrated the first full year in its new building, which offers multi-specialty outpatient care services. As an affiliate of UAB Health System, the clinic’s mission is to provide all residents of Jefferson County with respectful, complete, and patient-centered care that helps them achieve better health and a higher quality of life, regardless of their ability to pay.

Its original building, which opened in 1972, was designed for inpatient and emergency services but transitioned to multi-specialty ambulatory care in 2013. In 2020, a UAB Medicine-led health authority assumed day-to-day operations at the facility from Jefferson County.

“Operating a multi-specialty clinic in the space of an old hospital was inefficient at best and very expensive, because we still had so much overhead that we were trying to manage and repairs to make,” said Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority CEO David Randall. “It felt like the old hospitals of the ‘70s – dark hallways, cinder block walls – certainly not inviting.”

From the beginning, UAB was committed to building a new facility intentionally designed for Cooper Green’s services and its patients. In 2022, construction on its new home began.

Built for patients

“We truly started the project from scratch and designed it with an eye toward those who work there and the patients they care for,” Randall said.

Part of that included bringing department leaders and staff to the table to hear what they needed in the new space.

“Everybody felt like they had a part in designing the building to make it what they needed it to be,” said Cooper Green Administrator Laura Hurst. “It really came together fairly quickly.”

“It was fantastic for employees to be part of the design process; to be a part of the flow and the layout and make operations much more seamless,” Randall added. “We are really building a team-based culture, and we created a platform to encourage that.”

They also wanted to design the building to be more inviting, creating a sense of ease and encouraging a concept of healing while also making it modern and easier for patients to navigate and access services.

The 211,000-square-foot facility opened on Dec. 16, 2024, at the site of Cooper Green’s former parking deck at 1509 6^th Ave. S.

“We went from 1972 to 2024, so we cut our utility costs overnight because of efficiencies,” Hurst said. “It’s designed for clinics – it’s no longer us trying to fit clinics into old hospital wards. It’s actually less space, but it’s made for us.”

“On opening day, seeing patients come to Cooper Green and walk into the new lobby, it was almost a sense of awe. It doesn’t even feel like a health care facility – it feels like a five-star hotel,” Randall added. “I think we created the nicest health care facility in Birmingham for some of the most vulnerable patients in our population. This was for them, and I think that came across loud and clear in the way we designed it.”

Expanded care

Building a new, modern facility has allowed Cooper Green to expand existing outpatient services, including primary care and specialty care clinics, and add several new services. Its MRI suite allows more imaging to be done in house, and the capacity for mammograms was doubled.

Optometry services were added, so patients can get prescriptions for glasses and pick them up in the same location. A retail pharmacy allows patients to easily fill their prescriptions or receive vaccinations. Also, there’s a convenient urgent care clinic; a streamlined lab; a dental services clinic; physical, occupational, and speech therapy; and indoor and outdoor therapy spaces.

“We knew we needed all these things over the years, but we literally couldn’t do it. Now we can,” Hurst said.

“It started out with the new clinic, but there’s a lot of things we’ve done beyond the clinic, too,” Randall added.

Last year, Cooper Green launched an online enrollment option, making it easier than ever to become a new patient.

“You can upload all of your documents right there, plus it helps us when we’re out in the community. If we meet someone who wants to enroll, we can just pull up the website and help them with it right there,” Hurst said.

The clinic also rolled out its first-ever marketing campaign, conducted community outreach, and expanded opportunities for patients to participate in clinical trials.

“There’s been a lot of firsts this year, and the new building has been the foundation to do that,” Randall said.

Sustained growth

In the last year, Cooper Green enrolled over 2,100 new patients, bringing the total number of members to over 8,000 people. More than 72,000 appointments were scheduled in 2025.

“That meant everything increased – urgent care numbers have almost doubled, pharmacy service has doubled, and physical therapy visits nearly tripled,” Hurst said. “We were really limited on how many people we could see in the old building, but now we can serve those who need us.”

To meet demand, Cooper Green also hired over 60 new employees, including providers, pharmacists, and clinical support staff to help patients navigate their care.

Even with how much has changed over the last year, one thing is clear: Patients finally feel at home.

“In patient surveys, the number one thing people say is this new building is ‘fabulous’, and I think our staff feels like our patients deserved it,” Hurst said. “They should get the same care everybody else gets and the same kind of experience, if not better.”

Hurst continued, “I was talking with a patient who’d been here for 30 years and she said, ‘We got a great new building, but it seemed to come with a new attitude. Everybody’s just so friendly and so nice. It’s like people are generally happy to be here, and it didn’t always feel that way at the old building.’ I don’t really know if it’s the new building or just a cultural change, but you just can’t find a better group of employees. The way people treat each other and certainly treat the patients is unmatched.”

Going forward, Cooper Green is exploring ways to expand beyond its four walls, and it’s working toward establishing urgent care and primary care clinics across Jefferson County to improve access and convenience in the community. It also will promote “wraparound services” to support patients outside the clinic.

“I think the new clinic was just the beginning,” Randall said. “My hope is for Cooper Green to be a national benchmark for how we engage those underserved communities we serve, and I think we’re on path to do that.”

To become a member of Cooper Green or make an appointment, please call 205-930-3200, Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

If you are a currently enrolled patient with questions, please email newcoopergreenbuilding@uabmc.edu or call (205) 930-3200. Ensure your enrollment is up to date to take full advantage of the features in our new building.