Prisma Health Baptist — 1330 Taylor Street
The shortest hospital run in Columbia: under a mile from the Gervais Street bench, east past the State House grounds and four blocks north. General medical, surgical and maternity floors are the most forgiving in the city. Baptist Parkridge is a dozen miles out at Harbison off I-26.
Prisma Health Richland + Children's Hospital–Midlands
Richland Medical Park Drive off Colonial Drive, three miles north — the Midlands' only Level I trauma center and a USC School of Medicine teaching campus. Trauma, neuro intensive care and burn beds take nothing into the room. The children's service bans latex; its neonatal unit accepts nothing at all.
Colonial Drive long stays: Encompass Health and the Ronald McDonald House
The same road north of downtown carries the city's weeks-long admissions. Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Columbia is the one inpatient setting where a living plant clearly beats cut stems, and the Ronald McDonald House near the Richland campus is where a neonatal family is often living.
MUSC Health Columbia — Forest Drive and Gateway Corporate Boulevard
The Forest Drive hospital, four miles east, answered to the name Providence until 2019 and many callers still give that name, so confirm before ordering. The Northeast campus on Gateway Corporate Boulevard is eleven or twelve miles out toward I-77 — a separate drive entirely.
Lexington Medical Center — 2720 Sunset Boulevard, West Columbia
Independent of Prisma Health and MUSC, and the only destination on this page needing a river crossing — Gervais Street, Blossom Street or Jarvis Klapman. The same name sits on outpatient community medical centers at Irmo, Lexington, Chapin, Northeast Columbia, Gilbert, Swansea, Batesburg-Leesville and Otarre Pointe in Cayce.
Dorn VA Medical Center — 6439 Garners Ferry Road
Five miles southeast, among the busiest VA hospitals in the Southeast, sharing its grounds with the USC School of Medicine, a clinic tower and a community living center. Building, floor and room are all required, plus a family mobile for residents who may be at therapy when the driver arrives.
Fort Jackson, Moncrief Army Health Clinic and visiting family
The Army's largest basic-training installation sits inside Columbia's city limits on the east side, and Moncrief is behind its gate, which no commercial van clears. Use an off-post address, family housing with the sponsor meeting the driver, or the hotel where a trainee's family flew in.
Discharge day and senior living across Richland and Lexington counties
Where most Columbia get-well flowers are best aimed, since stays are short and the recovery at home is the longer half. Shandon, Rosewood, Forest Acres, Earlewood, Cayce, Irmo and Lexington are standard runs, as are Still Hopes, Laurel Crest, The Lowman Home at White Rock and the Brookdale communities.