SERVICES, SPACE EXPAND AT STUDENT HEALTH CENTER

The University of Alabama Student Health Center and Pharmacy has expanded health services and clinic space since its merger with the College of Community Health Sciences.

A women’s health pavilion was built in 2022 to provide increased gynecologic and other women’s health services and to add a private waiting room. New clinic exam rooms and offices for doctors and other health-care providers were also added throughout the Student Health Center.

“This has provided a better patient experience for students,” said Dr. Karen Burgess, medical director of the Student Health Center.

The merger has also provided UA students with access to more specialized care – neurology, sports medicine, endoscopy and endocrinology – just next door at University Medical Center. CCHS operates UMC. do not have a regular physician or whose regular physician does not practice at the hospital. Research suggests greater satisfaction among hospitalized patients who are cared for by hospitalists because these physicians are at the hospital and can quickly answer patient questions, meet with family and follow up on tests.

Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS, said the expansion will deliver expanded and enhanced health-care services and better support UA’s nearly 38,000 students, a population that has grown significantly since the Student Health Center was constructed in 2005.

UA’s Division of Student Life, which previously managed the Student Health Center, will continue to coordinate mental health services for students from one location – the UA Counseling Center in the South Lawn Office Building.

Capstone Hospitalist Group has partnered with the Atlanta-based IN Compass Health, which provides operational oversight and expertise and is responsible for day-to-day operations and quality care metrics of the hospitalist program. IN Compass also works with Capstone Hospitalist Group in the recruitment, selection and hiring of physicians who are employed by the hospitalist group.

The two hospitals are part of the Tuscaloosa-based DCH Health System. The 583-bed DCH Regional Medical Center is the cornerstone of the DCH system, and Northport Medical Center is a 204-bed community hospital that offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services.

Capstone Hospitalist Group previously operated as University Hospitalist Group, whose physicians began providing hospital medicine services at DCH Regional Medical Center in 2003.

-By Leslie Zganjar

Gillespie Selected As Hospitalist Group Director

Dr. Lisa Gillespie, who has extensive practice and leadership experience in hospital medicine, was named medical director of the Capstone Hospitalist Group in August 2022.

Capstone Hospitalist Group was established by University Medical Center in partnership with IN Compass Health of Atlanta, a hospitalist physician staffing and management company. Capstone Hospitalist Group physicians practice within the DCH Health System. UMC is operated by the College of Community Health Sciences.

“Dr. Gillespie brings years of experience as both a hospitalist and physician leader in hospital medicine,” said Dr. Richard Friend, dean of CCHS. “She has a proven track record of providing high-quality, compassionate care for patients.”

Gillespie said Capstone Hospitalist Group “combines a local presence with a firm that has a national reputation in hospital management to drive performance.”

Prior to joining Capstone Hospitalist Group, Gillespie practiced with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville. Before that, she worked as chief medical officer for LifePoint Hospitals at Rockdale Medical Center in Conyers, Ga., as chief medical officer for Piedmont Health System at Piedmont Rockdale in Conyers, and as hospitalist medical director for Rockdale Medical Center in Conyers. Gillespie was awarded the Georgia Hospital Association Distinguished Physician Leadership Award in 2016.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in public healthnutrition from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health. She received her medical degree from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and completed a residency in internal medicine at Emory University Affiliated Hospitals Program in Atlanta.