Providence Hospital recognized for heart care

Providence Hospital was recently ranked as “high performing” for heart failure care in the latest U.S. News & World Report Hospitals for “Common Care” rankings. The rankings evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals across the country on common inpatient procedures and conditions.

“Our innovative heart failure program continues to earn national recognition, including ‘gold’ status from the American Heart Association’s ‘Get with the Guidelines’ program,” Clark Christianson, president and CEO of Providence Hospital, said. “This latest rating honors the commitment of physicians, clinical personnel and support staff who provide outstanding care to patients experiencing heart failure. We are very proud to be the only area hospital rated as ‘high performance’ in the area.”

According to Michael King, director of planning and marketing for Providence Health System, the 161-year-old locally founded infirmary’s congestive heart failure outpatient clinic has been nationally recognized on several occasions since its inception 12 years ago.

“Effectively managing patients through the outpatient program carries over to our inpatient programs as well,” King said.

U.S. News evaluated hospitals in five procedures and medical conditions — heart bypass surgery, hip replacement, knee replacement, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — and rated them as high performers, average or below average. Only about 10 percent of the hospitals were rated as high performers.

“The choice of hospital is one of the most important and costly decisions an individual makes,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis for U.S. News. “We evaluated the treatment of more than 3.6 million patients and identified a small percentage of hospitals that have superior outcomes compared with their peer institutions. Whenever possible, patients, in consultation with their doctors, should seek out high-performing hospitals that excel in treating their specific condition.”

Providence Hospital was founded in 1854 by the Daughters of Charity from Emmitsburg, Maryland, who were invited by Mobile’s first bishop, Michael Portier. A board of local citizens was formed, and voted in 1855 to build a new 60-bed hospital at the intersection of Broad and St. Anthony streets.

In 1902 the facility moved to a new Mediterranean Revival structure on an 11-acre campus on Springhill Avenue. Another new 250-bed modern-style structure was completed in 1952 but was outgrown by the 1980s. Groundbreaking for the current 250-acre site in west Mobile, at an initial cost of $60 million, began in 1982 under the guidance of well-known architect Bertrand Goldberg, with the first patients accepted in 1987.

Today Providence Hospital is a 349-bed facility with 374 doctors on staff. The facility cares for more than 15,000 inpatients and 150,000 outpatients per year across an affiliated physician network of 10 practice locations as part of Providence Health System. It is wholly owned by Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the country and largest Catholic-based health system in the world, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.    

Commercial real estate moves
Coastal Benefits has leased 1,274 square feet of office space in Montlimar Place at 1110 Montlimar Drive in Mobile. Cameron Weavil of the Weavil Company represented the tenant and David Dexter of NAI Mobile worked for the landlord.

Read-Write has leased 2,600 square feet of office space at 15 Midtown Park W. in Mobile, according to Robert Cook with Vallas Realty, who represented the tenant. Read-Write is an education clinic providing testing, consultations and therapy for students and adults with language-based learning disabilities. Bradford Ladd with Roberts Brothers CPM worked for the landlord.

Sheffield School of Dance has leased a 1,300-square-foot studio space in Olde Shell Square. They will move from their current location in Springhill Village Shopping Center this summer. Michael Wilson with White-Spunner Realty represented the tenant and Pratt Thomas with the Merrill P. Thomas Co. Inc. worked for the landlord.

According to Jeff Barnes of Stirling Properties, an Indiana-based franchise called The House of Jerky has recently opened at The Wharf in Orange Beach on the Intracoastal Waterway. Barnes worked for the landlord. The retailer offers a variety of jerky and specialty products.     

Hargrove Engineering awards scholarships
The University of South Alabama (USA) recently presented Emaleigh Sargent and Shawn Morris with the Hargrove Foundation Engineering scholarship at an awards luncheon hosted by USA’s College of Engineering.

Sargent, a junior, is an electrical engineering major in the USA College of Engineering. She has worked as an intern at Hargrove Engineers + Constructors since 2012. As part of the Hargrove Electrical and Instrumentation Design Team, Sargent has worked on a number of client projects including recovery boiler gas burners, chemical plant power systems and retrofit projects.

Morris, a junior, has a degree in mathematics from Birmingham Southern College and is currently pursuing an engineering degree from USA. Morris is active in ASCE, Reformed University Fellowship, Associated General Contractors of America and National Society of Black Engineers. In 2014, Morris was the recipient of the MACE Raybun Scholarship.

“This is another example of the Hargrove Team giving back to the community and supporting the development of our future engineers in the Mobile area,” said Dennis Watson, representative for the Hargrove Foundation.

In 2014, The Hargrove Foundation established a continuing engineering scholarship for USA’s College of Engineering, in conjunction with the Mitchell-Moulton Scholarship Initiative. The program sprang from Mobile native Abraham Mitchell’s commitment of $50 million to the university. Of that amount, $25 million is a matching gift challenge to support undergraduate scholarships. The Hargrove Foundation’s initial contribution was $35,000.