Our History

With the hospital’s original endowment, a simple charge: “Serve all persons of the community regardless of race or ability to pay…and make it a brick building.”

In 1910, Judge Francis Flagg Putney donated $25,000 to the Ladies Hospital Aid Society of Albany to establish a hospital to serve the citizens of Southwest Georgia.

The judge’s endowment came with three stipulations:

1. That the hospital be named after his mother “Phebe” Putney.
2. That the hospital serve all citizens of the community, regardless of race or ability to pay.
3. That the hospital be a brick building in order to withstand the greatest threat to structures at the time – fire.

The little hospital on the plains of Southern Georgia opened its doors on August 1, 1911, beginning a tradition of healing and community service that would grow into one of America’s great not-for-profit community medical centers.

In the decades since, the hospital’s service area has grown to a population of over 500,000, and Phoebe has grown to a population with it into one of America’s most progressive community health systems.

With growth, the goal has been to bring the most advanced medical talent and technology – at a level generally found only in major population centers – to the citizens of Southwest Georgia. Some things haven’t changed. As Phoebe has grown from a single hospital to a health system, the more than 4,500 members of the “Phoebe Family” serving at all Phoebe facilities have remained dedicated to Judge Putney’s original mission of service to all.

Phoebe is nationally recognized for clinical excellence and innovative community health programs.

The flagship hospital Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital is a 691-bed teaching hospital and a regional center for cancer treatment, cardiac medicine/surgery, gastrointestinal disease and neuro-science. The Phoebe Cancer Center is one of the busiest and most advanced in the Southeast. The Phoebe Heart and Vascular Center performs more open-heart and cardiac catheterization procedures than all other hospitals in the region combined. Phoebe is one of only six designated perinatal centers in the state of Georgia and is the regions only provider of neonatal intensive care, cardiovascular surgery and radiation oncology services.

Quick Facts

• DNV-GL accredited
• Established in 1911
• 691 licensed beds
• 106,000 Emergency Center visits annually
• 15,000 surgeries annually
• 2,476 births annually

Economic Impact

• 3,500 jobs
• $179.3 million in wages paid
• $20 million in community benefits (including charity and uncompensated care)
• $1.54 billion total economic impact

Phoebe offers medical-surgical care, emergency treatment, obstetrics, pediatrics, wound care, a woman’s health center and much more.

As a true not-for-profit community hospital, Phoebe is operated by a volunteer board drawn from the community it serves. Phoebe is constantly reinvesting in the health of Southwest Georgia through programs in prevention, education and research that go beyond the bounds of traditional medicine.

Phoebe is proud to be a member of several health care organizations, including the American Hospital Association (AHA), Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA), Georgia Hospital Association (GHA), and Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals (GACH). These professional health care organizations encourage and promote the health and welfare of the public through the transfer of ideas, techniques and experiences to improve the quality and efficiency of delivering community-oriented health care.