From routine checkups to emergency visits, Augustans can rest assured their health is in the experienced hands of renowned physicians and medical professionals. Augusta is one of the few communities in the southeast to offer a stand-alone rehabilitation hospital and is by many standards considered to have the lowest doctor to patient ratio in the whole country, which is estimated to be 640:1.

Conveniently located near downtown Augusta is the highly regarded University Health Care System, featuring the 581-bed University Hospital with specialty centers that include renowned cardiovascular services, cancer care and women’s health. Unique to Augusta is University’s breast health center and mobile mammography unit. This comprehensive health system will conclude its $93.6 million renovation and expansion project in early 2009 with the opening of a new 188,000-square foot cardiovascular center. University also boasts prompt care facilities, home health, two nursing homes and a burgeoning Evans campus that includes Brandon Wilde Life Care Community, three physician office buildings and, coming soon, a full-service radiology center.

The medical staff of nearly 600 primary care physicians and specialists who practice at University provides everything from preventive and diagnostic care to state-of-the-art cardiovascular care and cancer intervention and treatment. University is the only hospital in Augusta to earn the Magnet designation for nursing excellence and the National Research Corporation’s Consumer Choice Award for overall image and quality for nine consecutive years.

The Medical College of Georgia is the 13th oldest medical school in the nation and the site of several historically significant medical milestones, including a cure for pellagra. While the main campus of the state’s health sciences university is located in Augusta, MCG students also learn clinical practice in private offices, clinics and hospitals across Georgia and at clinical campuses in Savannah and Albany.

The university is working to increase enrollment by about 60 percent over the next 10 years. Nearly 2,400 students are enrolled in the baccalaureate, master's, doctoral and professional degree programs at MCG’s Schools of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Medicine and Nursing. Meanwhile, MCG's research efforts focus on cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes/obesity, infection/inflammation and neurological disease.

The university’s clinical facilities include MCG Medical Center, the MCG Children’s Medical Center and the Ambulatory Care Center/Specialized Care Center. Recent additions to the campus include the Health Sciences Building, housing the Schools of Allied Health Sciences and Nursing, and the Cancer Research Center. MCG Health is a world-class healthcare network, offering the most comprehensive primary, specialty and sub-specialty care in the region. MCG Health provides skilled, compassionate care to its patients, conducts leading-edge clinical research, and fosters the medical education and training of tomorrow’s healthcare practitioners.

Facilities include the 478-bed MCG Health Medical Center; the Ambulatory Care Center, with more than 80 outpatient practice sites in one convenient setting; the Specialized Care Center, which houses a 13-county regional Level I trauma center; and the 154-bed MCG Health Children’s Medical Center. The health system also includes a variety of dedicated centers and units, such as the MCG Health Sports Medicine Center. In addition, MCG Health physicians travel to more than 90 satellite practice sites across Georgia to deliver specialized care.

MCG Health was one of 15 major teaching hospitals included among the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals in 2003 and 2007—the highest honor in healthcare—and in 2008 became the only health system in Georgia named a Community Value Index Top 100 Hospital for four out of five consecutive years.

In December 2007, Doctors Hospital broke ground on a $55 million tower, scheduled for completion in 2009. The new addition will bring more private rooms, operating rooms, and surgical admitting and waiting areas. Committed to providing advanced health and wellness services, the Doctors Hospital team of more than 370 physicians and 1,300 medical employees specializes in cancer treatment, women’s services and orthopedics. The hospital features the area’s first Trilogy Radiosurgery System and da Vinci surgical system, Augusta’s only family-centered maternity care program and a state-of-the-art burn center, which provides acute care to more than 3,000 patients per year nationwide.

Trinity Hospital of Augusta is the area’s only faith-based center for patient care. Trinity’s professionals offer many services, including ambulatory care, a National Healing Corporation Wound Healing Center, a bariatric and weight loss center, family focused childbirth, home health services, inpatient and outpatient hospice and palliative care, rehabilitation services, sleep lab studies, a national wound healing center and a large day surgery department. Since opening in 1952, Trinity has grown in its capacity to care for patients’ physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Trinity Hospital houses 231 beds and has a staff of nearly 900 employees. With direction from community medical and religious leaders, Trinity is recognized for leading the way in the first cochlear hearing implants, stereotactic mammography and a unique treatment program for hip and knee replacements.

Walton Rehabilitation Health System is a specialty not-for-profit hospital located in downtown Augusta. It offers inpatient and outpatient programs for adults and adolescents recovering from stroke, head injuries, spinal injuries, orthopedic injuries, chronic pain and other disabling illnesses and injuries.

Other healthcare institutions include the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, Select Specialty Hospital-Augusta and Fort Gordon’s Eisenhower Army Medical Center, which serves five southeastern states and Puerto Rico.