Keeping Your Family Healthy

By Laura Newsome

If you or someone you love has a preexisting medical condition, or if you should need medical attention once you move to the Peach City, you can rest easy knowing that Atlanta is home to some of the country’s best hospitals, each with expertise in a wide range of specialties. To help you navigate your moving-related health decisions, KNOWAtlanta has compiled a list of some of the city’s top hospitals and their renowned areas of expertise.

Cancer Care
Piedmont Hospital, piedmonthospital.org
This 100-year-old community hospital is on the cutting-edge of cancer treatment.
Piedmont Cancer Services’ interdisciplinary approach to care involves a team of cancer specialists, including oncologists, an oncology nursing unit, surgeons and nutritionists who collaborate to create a personalized treatment plan for each patient using state-of-the-art diagnostic testing and treatment technology.

WellStar Cobb Hospital, wellstar.org
WellStar takes compassionate cancer care to the next level with integrated treatment options.
WellStar’s new STAT Cancer Center provides lung, breast, colon, chest and skin cancer patients with access to a team of doctors who work together to diagnose and treat illnesses, cutting the time between diagnosis and treatment from 56 days to 13. Instead of waiting months, cancer patients meet with their oncologists, radiologists and surgeons all in one day and at one location to determine a course of action.

Emergency Care
Grady Hospital, gradyhealthsystem.org
One of the nation’s largest public health systems also houses Atlanta’s only Level 1 trauma center.
Grady Hospital’s Level 1 ER rating means that the hospital is equipped to handle Atlanta’s most severe emergencies. Grady is also home to the state’s only poison center, one of the nation’s largest burn units and one of the nation’s top infectious disease programs. In an average year, Grady’s highly trained staff of 280 paramedics respond to more than 92,000 calls for assistance and transport more than 68,000 patients to the hospital’s ER, which is staffed entirely by doctors from Emory and Morehouse.

WellStar Kennestone Hospital, wellstar.org
WellStar Kennestone is home to the state’s busiest emergency room.
Delivering health care to a growing community of more than 600,000 people, Kennestone’s ER serves more than 110,000 patients each year. Handling more heart attack cases than any other hospital in the state, Kennestone manages its remarkable patient volume by dividing its ER into five levels ranging from fast track emergencies to pediatric and immediate care.

Heart Care
Emory University Hospital, emoryhealthcare.org
The largest health care system in the state is ranked among the nation’s top hospitals for heart care and cardiac surgery.
Throughout its long history, Emory’s heart center has used cutting-edge technology and techniques to perform more than 700 adult heart transplants. Emory also performed Georgia’s first minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery, as well as the world’s first minimally invasive triple off-pump bypass surgery.

Saint Joseph’s Hospital, stjosephsatlanta.org
Atlanta’s oldest hospital has one of the largest cardiac programs in the country.
For decades, the name St. Joseph’s has been synonymous with exceptional cardiac care. The first hospital in the Southeast to offer open-heart surgery, and the first to offer surgery with the minimally invasive daVinci-S surgical system, St. Joseph’s remains one of only two adult heart transplant centers in the state of Georgia.

Maternity Care
Northside Hospital, northside.com
Northside Hospital delivers more babies than any other hospital in the country.
Lovingly known as “Atlanta’s baby factory,” Northside is the leading provider of obstetrical care in Georgia, delivering more than 18,000 babies a year with the help of technological innovations like 4D ultrasound technology and a perinatal unit that specializes in high-risk pregnancies.

Stroke Care
DeKalb Medical Center, dekalbmedical.com
One of Atlanta’s best large hospitals is the place to go in the event of a stroke.
With three convenient medical campuses in the Atlanta area, DeKalb Medical Center recently earned a Gold Seal of Approval and a five-star rating for clinical excellence in stroke care. The hospital is also certified by the Joint Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations as a Primary Stroke Center and is known for its dedicated emergency stroke team, leading-edge stroke research and comprehensive rehabilitation and early detection programs.

Women’s Health Care
Gwinnett Medical Center, gwinnettmedicalcenter.org
This suburban hospital brings all-inclusive women’s health care beyond the Perimeter.
For suburban women who demand top-notch medical care at home in their own metro area neighborhood, Gwinnett Medical Center’s Gwinnett Women’s Pavilion is an award-winning medical facility dedicated to providing health screenings, education and diagnostic services for women of all ages, with an emphasis on maternity care, breast health, newborn intensive care and lactation services.