UO > Community Profile > Savannah, GA

“I love New York City,” he declares, “and it was a wonderful place to live and raise a family, but I had basically been the chief gynecologist for 11 years, and I felt it was time for somebody new with fresh ideas to come in.”

The Anderson Institute focuses on three concentrations—patient care, education, and research. Memorial itself has already been involved in at least two important research projects. In 2000 it was the site of the largest cancer study to date for children. The next year the National Cancer Institute chose it as a test site for one of the largest-ever studies of Vitamin E and selenium as preventive agents against prostate cancer.

Cancer care and research in fact have become a major focus at both Memorial and St. Joseph’s/Candler. Hoskins talks of expanding the Anderson program to five and six simultaneous lab investigations and increasing ability to offer Phase One and Two trials by bringing in highly regarded researchers. (“We’re already strong in Phase Three,” he says.) The medical center’s affiliation with the Mercer University School of Medicine in nearby Macon is also an asset, although Hoskins says one of his immediate goals is to plug any gaps in tertiary cancer care by recruiting more physicians.

At St. Joseph’s/Candler, Patwardhan considers the new pavilion the complete response to all cancer patients’ needs. “We tried hard to see what patients wanted, and we realized that convenience is the most important thing to them,” he says. When CCRP opens in 2005 it will be, along with Memorial, a venue for complete cancer care including prevention information, diagnosis, surgery, chemo, and radiation therapy. But much more than that, says Patwardhan, “we are aiming to attract ‘magnet’ physicians whose special medical/scientific expertise will bring patients from many places outside this region.”

The hospital is already affiliated with the comprehensive Lee R. Moffitt Cancer Research Institute in Tampa, FL, and is working on translational research with some pharmaceutical companies. At CCRP, Phase II clinical trials offering access to the newest drugs will be available to qualifying patients in order to learn which drugs are most effective against which types of tumor. Says Patwardhan, “We will be recruiting and paying handsomely for doctors with the relationships and abilities to convince drug companies they should partner with us.”

Today’s health-care facilities are a quantum leap from early organized care in Georgia’s First City when, in the 1730s, a private home was used sporadically as an infirmary. The first bona fide hospital was the infirmary at the Bethesda Orphanage, an American first in its own right. St. Joseph’s/Candler, through at least nine name changes and consolidations and almost innumerable building and renovation programs, has been in continuous operation since 1809. Its most recent update was a merger of Candler Health Services and St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1997. Both facilities are still in operation.

A memorial to Savannah’s World War II heroes, Memorial Hospital opened in 1955, assuming its current name, Memorial Health University Medical Center, when it established ties with the Mercer medical school. It established “Lifesaver Max,” a traveling resuscitation/emergency support system, in 1967, a clinic for lung diseases in 1963, a sickle cell clinic in 1972, and a pediatric neurology clinic in 1980. Its affiliated Children’s Hospital opened in 1992.

Over the years, the hospitals have been innovators in some unusual areas, such as the Southeast’s first separate structure for contagious disease patients, built in 1966, and a Same Day Surgery unit opened in 1981, both at Candler. The area’s first open heart surgery took place in 1967 at Memorial, which became America’s first hospital equipped with a sophisticated arrhythmia detection system.

Prompted by the area’s greatest incidences of stroke and heart disease, Candler established an Acute Stroke Unit in 1969. Both hospitals now concentrate heavily on preventive measures, such as St. Joseph’s/Candler’s INTERxVENT program, offering exercise training, nutrition, and weight management.

Besides garnering several Top 100 honors from HealthGrades since 1997, Memorial has been cited by J.D. Power as a distinguished hospital for providing outstanding patient experiences. St. Joseph’s/Candler is one of only 50 hospitals in the country to be designated Magnet facilities for its “first-rate bedside care.”

“Really,” says Hoskins, “there’s not anything in terms of tertiary care between Jacksonville and Atlanta, and they have more significant gaps in care than here.”

For Savannahians, hospitals mean much more than bedside care. Add community involvement to all of the above. Says Ranicki, “There’s hardly any event that happens that the hospitals haven’t sponsored or organized.” Aside from supporting local organizations and health-related events, Memorial, for instance, participates in or sponsors events such as the Ice Hockey Classic, Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, Richmond Hill Seafood Festival, Tybee Island Marathon, and the Teddy Bear Gala, a Children’s Hospital benefit, among others.

In the arts arena, the city’s Cultural Affairs Department funds 22 organizations, sponsors some of the city’s festivals and produces more than 150 programs of its own every year. It also partners with SCAD and Savannah State University on arts and crafts programs for children and adults.

Besides its role in historic preservation, “SCAD has really made a difference by bringing people here from all over the world,” according to Patwardhan. Aside from attracting students from across the U.S. and abroad, the school organizes two unusual, highly popular events each year. The Sidewalk Arts Festival started 20 years ago with a few outdoor chalk masterpieces in front of the administration building. Now artists chalk up more than 700 squares, and the event has long since been moved to the city’s large Forsyth Park.

Looking for a way to attract the film industry to Savannah, SCAD’s founder and president, Paula S. Wallace, masterminded the film festival, a week filled with showings of student and professional films of all kinds. And Hollywood bigwigs such as George Segal, Alec Baldwin, and revered director Arthur Penn have joined in, especially to work with the college’s film students.

In earlier years Savannah developed a standoffish reputation, going so far as to pass up the proposed Spoleto Music Festival, which then began a long and continuing relationship with Charleston, SC, a kind of sister historic southern city with a sometimes competitive relationship. The “leave-me-alone” attitude has disappeared, and this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Savannah Music Festival.

Like many of Savannah’s festivals, big and small, the music extravaganza fills Savannah’s restored riverfront and its string of lively cafes and pubs. Nearby is a symbol of the city’s perpetual friendliness, the well-loved statue of Florence Martus, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter who, for 45 years, stood on shore waving to passing ships.

Today, shipping is one of Savannah’s major industries. Its two deepwater terminals make up the U.S.’s seventh largest container port. The harbor cuts more deeply into the coastline than any other eastern seaboard terminus, making it attractive to cost-conscious shippers who can spend far less on land transportation. Last year, the port handled 1.5 million container units.

In terms of jobs, 2003 was a “checkered” year, says Rick Winger, president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, but tourism is thriving, and the variety of diversified industries is encouraging, including an increasing high tech presence and the second-fastest growing technical school system in the U.S.

With more than 40,000 military and civilian jobs at stake, there’s some worry about looming base closings, but the Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Air Field complex may be far down the government’s hit list. It’s home to the Third Infantry Division and other units now deployed in Iraq.

There are economic benefits for newcomers—and long-time residents as well. Taylor says he can hardly keep from gloating to visiting family and friends who are “just disgusted” over Savannah’s low housing prices. “My brother can’t afford to buy in New England, and in New Jersey, my dad spends a third of his income on property taxes and medical insurance. On the Hudson River, waterfront land and a house with boat access costs more than a million dollars, and in Manhattan maintenance costs are more than my mortgage.”

Ranicki puts it simply: “Here you can get a lot of house for less.”

There are quality-of-life downsides, though. Air transportation has improved dramatically in recent years, and direct flights, though still limited, are increasing. Still, getting to Philadelphia, for instance, is a problem for Taylor. “It’s not easy,” he says, “and it’s never convenient going through Atlanta. Charlotte is nice, but it’s hard to make connections.”

Ranicki agrees. “The airport is still woefully small compared to what I was used to in Michigan, but people are proud of it and it’s growing.” Not only that, “The roads are great, even though you have to drive through downtown to go from suburbs to beaches. They can’t build a highway through the historic district.” A big plus for the veteran of many snows, though: “No potholes!”

Ranicki lives in Effingham County, adjacent to Savannah’s Chatham County. He sees a dramatic difference in school quality. “Schools are really bad in Chatham County,” he believes, “ but really, really good in Effingham County. The quality of the area draws higher quality faculty, and the school administrators are trying to make things attractive for new teachers.” In some ways, Patwardhan agrees, but, he says, “There are good public schools (in Savannah), but you have to pick and choose.” One of the high schools, Jenkins, “is probably superior to many of the private schools.” For the truly concerned, there are many of the latter.

In the end, small disadvantages are trumped by a “user-friendly” climate in a friendly city filled with fine architecture and bathed in green with a cooling canopy of live oaks (Savannah’s city government takes pains to insure a continuing 50 percent tree cover).

The story wouldn’t be complete without tributes to a 19th-century physician and to seven dedicated women of the 1950s, not to mention the SCAD preservationists. Dr. Richard D. Arnold was the Civil War-era mayor who went out to meet Union General William T. Sherman just before Christmas in 1864. Sherman’s army had ravaged most of the state on its notorious march to the sea. Arnold agreed to surrender Savannah peacefully, saving its many beautiful buildings and homes.

By the 1950s, though, many architectural gems had badly deteriorated. Urban renewal predators threatened to turn the city into a conglomerate of ugly buildings and parking lots. The seven ladies watched the proceedings, hitting the boiling point when the wrecking ball threatened one of America’s great Federal-style houses, the home of master builder Isaiah Davenport. They went to work with a vengeance to save it—and many more.

Today, some 1,600 priceless buildings make the Historic District and neighboring Victorian neighborhood sought-after addresses—and irresistible attractions for tourists. At least six homes are regularly open for tours. More are part of the springtime Annual Tour of Homes and Gardens.

Finally the preservation bug has spread to once-sagging commercial streets. Says one recently returned Savannahian, “In the six years since I was away the whole city got a shot of life. Commerce had started again downtown. People were walking around. Shops reopened. It has really been incredible!” n