Healthcare
Ambulatory health care services accounted for $619 million of the Savannah MSA’s GDP in 2007 or 4.8 percent of its total private economic activity. According to the Georgia Department of Labor, the health care industry, including social assistance, employed 12 percent of the region’s workforce with 18,642 employees (2nd Quarter 2009).
There was an average of 302.6 physicians per 100,000 persons in Chatham County, where the majority of Savannah’s health care industry is centered, which means a total of 727 physicians in 2006. This compares to a state average of 202.2. There has been a 20 percent increase in the relative number of physicians in Chatham County from 1996 to 2006. Two nationally recognized medical centers deliver top quality health care in the city: Memorial University Medical Center and the St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System. These centers and the advanced medical specialties they offer attract people from all over southeast Georgia and the southern coastal area of South Carolina to these medical facilities, which are also the top two private nonmanufacturing employers in the metropolitan area.
Memorial University Medical Center
www.memorialhealth.com
Memorial University Medical Center (MUMC) is an award-winning, nonprofit tertiary care hospital with 530-bed capacity. An academic medical center, or teaching hospital, MUMC is a part of the Memorial Health system, a two-state health care organization that serves patients from 35 counties in Georgia and South Carolina with world-class programs and doctors who specialize in cardiac care, cancer care, trauma, pediatrics, high-risk obstetrics and neonatology in its major centers:
• The Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute
• The Heart and Vascular Institute
• George and Marie Backus Children’s Hospital
• The Women’s Health Institute
As a teaching hospital, MUMC has a residency program that trains medical personnel in diagnostic radiology, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and surgery. Its medical staff has trained 117 physician residents.
During 2008, MUMC had 24,500 admissions, performed 22,178 surgeries, and processed 263,994 outpatient and 85,000 emergency visits. MUMC is among the top 10 percent nationally for pulmonary and gastrointestinal medical services. Accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the American College of Radiology, the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission and others, MUMC has received a number of prestigious recognitions, awards and honors, most recently it received the Women’s Health Excellence award from HealthGrades.
St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System
www.sjchs.com
Two Savannah hospitals partnered in 1997 to create the St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System (SJ/C), which is the largest faith-based, nonprofit health institution in the region. SJ/C offers primary care and more than a dozen specialized inpatient and outpatient services ranging from hyperbaric care and wound care to digestive diseases and surgical services at its two anchor hospitals with 305 beds in the St. Joseph’s Hospital and 331 beds in the Candler Hospital. Top tertiary care is provided at its Centers of Excellence:
• The Heart Hospital
• Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer and Research Pavilion
• Mary Telfair Women’s Hospital
• Institute for Advanced Bone and Joint Surgery
• The Institute for Neurosciences
SJ/C has achieved network accreditation status – a rare honor – in addition to its accreditation by the Joint Commission. It is the only health provider in the region to have achieved both network accreditation status and MAGNET status for nursing excellence. Modern Healthcare Magazine has also named it one of the country’s Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Systems. Their Cardiac Rehabilitation Program is the first in the region to receive Program Certification by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Information on Heath Care taken from the Savannah 2010 Economic Trends.
Source: Retrieved 11/2009 from MUMC and SJCHS, The Georgia Statistics System and other websites.
