Baptist Health
The not-for-profit Baptist Health is the largest health care provider in central Alabama and an affiliate of the UAB Health System.
Central to Baptist Health are its three hospitals — Baptist Medical Center South with 492 beds, Baptist Medical Center East with 176 beds and Prattville Baptist Hospital with 107 beds. Also within the system are the Montgomery Cancer Center, the freestanding psychiatric hospital Crossbridge Behavioral Health, a joint venture surgical center called Montgomery Surgical Center, a network of ambulatory clinics, outpatient imaging centers, wound care facilities plus rehabilitation and home care services.
Baptist Health serves patients in 14 counties with some 700,000 residents. With more than 5,000 employees, it is among the largest employers in the area.
Baptist Health is home to the area’s only Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Units, one at the South campus and one at the East.
One of Alabama’s only Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinics is located at Baptist Medical Center East, which delivers the second most babies per year in the state and offers specialized care for women with high-risk pregnancies.
Other special services include robotic assisted knee and hip surgery and an award-winning stroke center that has the capability to perform thrombectomy, a life and skill saving procedure for stroke victims.
The Montgomery Cancer Center, which opened more than 20 years ago, provides access to advanced chemotherapies and other treatment options.
Baptist Health supports UAB Medicine’s internal medicine residency program, operated through the Montgomery Regional Medical Campus on the campus of Baptist Medical Center South. This campus also is home to the UAB Medicine Multispecialty Clinic at Baptist Medical Center South, which offers specialists in breast surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, endocrinology and diabetes care, gastroenterology, urology and rheumatology.
Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System
The Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System serves more than 134,000 veterans living in a 43-county area of Georgia and Alabama.
In addition to its main facilities — CAVHCS-West Campus in Montgomery and CAVHCS-East Campus in Tuskegee — it operates community outpatient clinics in Dothan, Monroeville and Columbus, Georgia, plus the Wiregrass Clinic at Fort Rucker.
Jackson Hospital
Jackson Hospital’s history is integral to the history of medicine in Central Alabama. The hospital traces its roots back to 1894, when Watkins Infirmary received its first patients at the hospital’s present location. On September 16, 1946, Jackson Hospital opened with 37 patient beds and five attending physicians.
Today, licensed for 344 beds, Jackson Hospital is a community not-for-profit hospital serving Montgomery and the Alabama River Region with comprehensive health care services from maternity to sleep disorders to stroke care, surgery and emergency services. The Jackson Surgery Center and The Jackson Imaging Center provide additional health resources to the area. As the largest multi-specialty clinic in the River Region, The Jackson Clinic offers a wide array of services.
Jackson Hospital has received the gold seal of approval for abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery, spine surgery and heart attack care from the Joint Commission. This hospital also has been honored for its bariatric surgery, hip and knee replacement and spine surgery services.
The Jackson Wellness Center offers fitness options for area residents.
Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Montgomery
Encompass Health, with 75 beds, offers inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services, caring for patients with a wide range of diagnoses, from hip fractures to strokes to neurological disorders.
In October 2022, Michelle Von Arx was appointed chief executive officer of the hospital.
Noland Hospital Montgomery
This long-term acute care hospital, located within Jackson Hospital, is affiliated with Noland Health Services and specializes in treating medically complex patients who need such services as ventilator or pulmonary care, wound care, long-term IV therapy and those with multi-system failure.
This article appears in the January 2023 issue of Business Alabama.
