Tyler Is Regional Healthcare Hub
Tyler residents have top-ranked options when it comes to making health-care decisions.
Services are provided by the 454-bed East Texas Medical Center, Trinity Mother Frances Hospital, the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Texas Spine and Joint Hospital, making Tyler a regional health-care hub.
These centers are staffed by more than 600 physicians, an impressive number in a county of under 200,000 residents, says Angela Driggs, executive director of the Smith County Medical Society.
"We have every major medical specialty available here," Driggs says. "Our health-care facilities offer excellent quality, with an extremely talented and well-trained support group of health-care professionals. Plus, Tyler is an attractive community with a superior quality of life, which is why we have been so successful in attracting the impressive number of physicians and professionals here."
With a medical society that has been in existence for more than 100 years, the medical roots in Tyler run deep, Driggs says.
"It's very much like a family of medicine," she says. "Our doctors share close personal relationships, and in many cases we have third-generation Tyler physicians practicing here."
Growth and a continued quest for excellence are the hallmarks of Tyler's medical facilities.
The University of Texas Health Science Center Tyler marked a milestone in 2009 when it launched the construction of a new $67 million academic center that will include a cancer center, residency program classrooms and a medical library.
"The academic center will serve as a destination point in the Piney Woods of East Texas for students and young physicians seeking new knowledge, for the sick seeking new and advanced treatment, for those wanting to teach and for those seeking new discoveries through hard work and innovative research," says Dr. Kirk Calhoun, UTHSCT president.
The new expansion is expected to help meet the state's demand for residency slots.
East Texas Medical Center Tyler, the regional referral facility at the center of a growing group of mini-systems throughout East Texas, is one of the first 14 hospitals in Texas to be designated as a Primary Stroke Center by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
It was recognized in 2009 as a silver annual performance award winner for the treatment of stroke patients and was spotlighted in a recent issue of U.S. News and World Report.
For four consecutive years, Trinity Mother Frances Hospital has been recognized as one of the nation's top hospitals for having the highest quality and image in the community, a designation made through the National Research Corporation by consumers.
In 2009, the hospital joined forces with Tyler Cardiovascular Consultants P.A., thereby streamlining heart care in the region with quality preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic cardiovascular services.
Spine surgery at the Texas Spine and Joint Hospital is consistently ranked nationally in the top 5 percent, with 2009 as the sixth consecutive year the hospital has maintained this standard.
The five-star facility boasts an infection rate below 1 percent, which is well below the national average. TSJH includes a 20-bed, acute-care hospital, an outpatient surgery and ancillary imaging center, and a medical staff of more than 196 doctors and 220 employees.
