Southwest Georgia hospitals ranked in Georgia Trend

ALBANY — Three hospitals in the Phoebe Putney Health System have recently been named among the state’s top hospitals by “Georgia Trend” magazine.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany was named among the Top 11 Teaching Hospitals in the state, Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus was in the Top 10 of small hospitals and Phoebe Worth Medical Center in Sylvester was in the Top 15 in the critical access hospital ranking.

PPMH, ranked No. 7 in teaching hospitals, is the hub of Georgia Regents University Medical College of Georgia’s first satellite medical campus – the Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus – for third- and fourth-year medical students. PPMH is also the site of the Southwest Georgia Family Medicine Residency Program, which has collaborated with the Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center and Albany Area Primary Health Care to develop the Pathway to Medical School Program, which specifically targets Georgia pre-med students who plan to pursue a medical career in primary care.

PPMH partners with the University of Georgia’s Pharmacy School, which opened its Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus in Albany in 2011 to provide classroom and student laboratory space for the Doctor of Pharmacy program and the Graduate Certificate Residency Program in south Georgia.

Phoebe Sumter, ranked No. 8 in small hospitals, was named to the Top Small Hospital list which included hospitals with 150 beds or less. Phoebe Sumter’s 183,000 square-foot facility features 76-beds and all private rooms. Services provided include a 24-hour emergency center, bariatrics, cancer services, cardiac services, hospice, rehab/physical therapy and women’s and family health.

Phoebe Worth was No. 15 in Top Critical Access Hospitals in the state. The services for this 25-bed hospital includes a 24-hour emergency center, medical-surgical care, physical occupational and speech therapy, cancer clinic, pediatrics and a sleep disorders clinic. The hospital also provides wellness programs to serve employers with screenings, pre-employment physicals and ongoing health education.

“There are more than 130 hospitals dotting the Georgia landscape, from the 25-bed Higgins General Hospital in Bremen to Level I trauma center Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta,” said Georgia Trend of the rankings. “No matter the size or location, though, their goals are all the same: to treat and heal Georgians and be there in their time of need. And for Georgia Trend’s annual Top Hospitals feature, we ranked them all.”

Among the other Southwest Georgia hospitals to make the list included Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton, which was No. 2 of the medium-sized hospitals, Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie, ranking No. 12 in small hospitals, John D. Archbold Medical Center in Thomasville at No. 5 in medium-sized hospitals and Mitchell County Hospital in Camilla getting the No. 8 spot in critical access hospitals.

The magazine said that it grouped hospitals of similar size and mission together and compared them with their peer institutions. The top hospitals are listed in five categories: Teaching Hospitals, Large Hospitals (more than 400 beds), Medium-sized Hospitals (151-399 beds), Small Hospitals (fewer than 150 beds) and Critical Access Hospitals (rural community hospitals, typically with fewer than 25 beds). The data used to compile the rankings came from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and is available at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

The data download date for the analysis is July 2014, the magazine said. The listing appears in the magazine’s December issue.