EAMC-Lanier Rural Emergency Hospital
Located in Valley in Chambers County, EAMC-Lanier was expected to transition on Dec. 1, 2024, from a regular acute-care hospital to a rural emergency hospital.
The biggest difference is that the hospital, which opened in 1950, will no longer have inpatient beds. However, it will provide 24-hour emergency care and several outpatient services. Those services include imaging services highlighted by a 64-slice CT scanner, 3-D digital mammography and an MRI; laboratory services, cardiac rehab, physical therapy and infusion services.
Physicians in the hospital’s Ambulatory Surgery Center also will continue to provide outpatient procedures, including general and vascular surgery, orthopedic operations, gastroenterology services, ophthalmology procedures and pain management.
Attached to the hospital is a 103-bed nursing home that provides long-term care for residents. This facility is nearing the end of a major renovation that includes updating all 103 units and the support areas. The nursing home was named by Newsweek as one of America’s Best Nursing Homes 2025.
Through an affiliation with East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika that started in 2014, EAMC-Lanier can provide easy access to a wide range of specialty services including cardiology, neurology, urology, oncology and women’s health.
Russell Medical
Russell Medical, in Alexander City, is one of the largest employers in Tallapoosa County. It is a member of UAB Health System.
Russell Medical’s new Benjamin Russell Center for Advanced Care opened this summer, made possible by a $25 million legacy gift from Ben and Luanne Russell to honor Ben’s father, Benjamin Russell. This 26,000-square-foot center is led by a geriatrician, Dr. Robert Edwards, who is now seeing patients in the new space. Other specialties will follow. It is located near the hospital and is focused on increasing geriatric services in the area.
The facility will be home to specialties not seen before in the Russell Medical System, such as geriatrics, rheumatology, endocrinology, podiatry and psychiatry. Many who live on Lake Martin are retired, so a closer-to-home solution is needed.
The Russells’ gift also includes a senior living community that will have 26 independent living cottages on the Russell Medical campus. There also will be a 32-bed assisted living center.
The three facilities are part of a three-phase master plan called the Russell Legacy Project.
The hospital operates three rural health clinics in New Site, Dadeville and Goodwater.
Lake Martin Community Hospital
Lake Martin Community Hospital, a division of Ivy Creek Healthcare, is an acute care hospital. Services include urgent care for non-emergency medical needs that require immediate attention; a 24/7 emergency department; outpatient surgery; and diagnostic imaging that includes X-ray, ultrasound, mammograms and CT scans. The hospital recently opened a vein clinic.
The hospital’s Wellness Care Gym is open to the public and offers a variety of fitness equipment and classes.
For those needing special care, there is the Tallapoosa Patient First Program, which provides patients with faster access to ALS care, and provides well checks, follow-ups and telehealth visits for high utilization patients who do not necessarily need emergency services.
The hospital also offers Ivy Creek Home Health, providing skilled nursing, physical therapy, wound care and more. And Ivy Creek Hospice provides compassionate, end-of-life care, supporting patients and families with nursing, spiritual care and medication management.
This article appears in the December 2024 issue of Business Alabama.
