Albany & Columbus, Georgia Area: Intro

In this series, I will cover Albany and Columbus, Georgia together. We’ll start with some history of Albany.

Albany, Georgia is located on the Flint River and was a prominent shipping and market center in the nineteenth century. Seven railroad lines met in Albany making it the center of trade in the Southeast. Railroad restructuring has since led to job losses in that industry.¹

There are two hospitals in the Albany referral region: Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Phoebe Sumter Medical Center. I found some interesting details on one of these hospitals that I wanted to share.

Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital was created from a $25,000 gift from Judge Francis Flagg Putney. The hospital, named after the Judge’s mother, opened August 1, 1911. In 1986, this hospital made headlines for all of the wrong reasons. The GBI started investigating a unsually high percentage of cardiac arrests. Turns out there was a nurse injecting potassium chloride into bags of frozen plasma, which were then injected into patients. ²

Seventy-eight miles away from Albany is Columbus, Georgia. Columbus is located on the Chattahoochee River on the west central Georgia border. Directly across the river from Columbus is Phenix City, Alabama which is where Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital is located. Columbus is the third largest city in Georgia with about 194,000 residents. Fort Benning, the United States Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence and a major employer, is located south of the city. They are also home to the longest urban whitewater rafting course in the world constructed on the Chattahoochee River.³ Columbus has four hospitals in their referral region: Piedmont Columbus, St Francis Hospital, Hughston Hospital, and Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital.

The rafting course features class V rapids, so it’s a good thing to have hospitals nearby. Piedmont Columbus joined the Piedmont family in March 2018. On their June 2018 Medicare Cost Report, it shows their name as The Medical Center. This hospital has a Level II trauma center, a Level III neonatal ICU, and a pediatric ICU. They also have a Family Residency Program that started back in 1972. ⁴

St Francis Hospital opened in 1950 and has the only open-heart surgery program in Columbus. ⁵

Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital is ranked in the top 10% nationwide for both both orthopaedic and joint replacement care; in fact, it is the only hospital in Alabama to be recognized for excellence in both these areas during a given year.⁶

The history on these cities and hospitals is intriguing. I can’t wait to dive into their data to learn even more. Come join me on another adventure.