Health Care - Health Care & Wellness

Everyone knows that Nashville is Music City, but it’s also a leading center for the health care industry. In fact, Nashville is rapidly carving out a name for itself as the “Silicon Valley of Health Care.” Currently it’s home to nearly 300 health care companies, including HCA, the largest for-profit provider of health care services in the nation. HCA manages about 182 hospitals and 94 outpatient surgery centers in 22 states, England, and Switzerland, and employs thousands of people at its headquarters near Centennial Park.

Today residents of Middle Tennessee can choose from several nationally recognized hospitals for their health care needs. In addition, Nashville remains a center for health care education. Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical College are both nationally recognized medical schools. Vanderbilt, Belmont University, David Lipscomb University, Tennessee Tech, and Aquinas Junior College all offer degrees in nursing. Meharry’s School of Dentistry has one of only four Regional Research Centers for Minority Oral Health in the United States—all of which assures Nashville’s place as a health care leader for years to come.

Overview

Saint Thomas Hospital’s Heart Institute is one of the top five cardiac programs in the nation. Among the “firsts” to its credit are the first heart transplant in Tennessee (in 1985) and the first Regent aortic valve installation in the United States (in 1999). Baptist Hospital is the largest nonprofit medical center in Middle Tennessee and also the region’s busiest emergency room, receiving about 50,000 visits per year. Baptist has been at the national forefront in health care treatment, building the nation’s first facility dedicated solely to laser and laparoscopic surgery and the region’s first outpatient surgery center.

Centennial’s Sarah Cannon Cancer Center is also widely regarded as the leading program of its kind in the Southeast. Meanwhile, TriStar’s Hendersonville hospital recently pioneered a groundbreaking procedure for Parkinson’s disease patients.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is another major player in the health care field. In early 2004 Vanderbilt Medical Center’s state-of-the-art $172 million Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital opened its doors. The only free-standing children’s hospital in the area, the new facility serves children of Middle Tennessee, southern Kentucky, and northern Alabama.