Georgia Infirmary Health Center

The Georgia Infirmary Health Center at St. Joseph's/Candler

Created to give residents experience in a community setting while expanding access to quality healthcare for the residents of Savannah. 

Clinic rotations within the St. Joseph’s/Candler Internal Medicine Residency offer far more than a traditional training experience—they provide a meaningful opportunity to make a lasting impact. In addition to hands-on learning at two acute care hospitals, residents also serve in a dedicated clinic located in the heart of a medically underserved community, within a building rich in history and purpose.

Housed in the Georgia Infirmary—established in 1832 as the first African-American hospital in the United States—this clinic stands as a powerful symbol of compassion, progress, and community commitment. Here, residents deliver vital continuity of care for patients transitioning from inpatient and outpatient settings, while also serving as a critical lifeline for neighborhood residents who lack access to primary care. It is an experience that not only sharpens clinical skills, but also reinforces the true mission of medicine: caring for those who need it most.

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The Internal Medicine Residency clinic features 17 internal medicine exam rooms and a dedicated procedure room, purpose-built to support the patient volume and variety that residents need to develop real clinical confidence. Beyond the clinic itself, the Georgia Infirmary’s reach extends well beyond its doors.

Through an Adult Day Health Center, a Primary Care Clinic, and two statewide case management programs, SOURCE and CCSP, the Infirmary serves patients across 27 counties in Southeast Georgia, with a satellite office in Baxley extending care into some of the region’s most rural communities.

Located across from Williams Court Apartments, a 151-unit low-income housing community for seniors and adults with disabilities, the Georgia Infirmary is uniquely positioned at the intersection of healthcare and housing, two of the most fundamental factors in long-term health outcomes.

For residents, training in this environment is unlike anything a hospital rotation alone can offer. It is community medicine in its fullest form, practiced inside a building that has been serving Savannah’s most vulnerable residents for nearly two centuries.

Our Mission

St. Joseph’s/Candler’s mission to treat illness and promote wellness for all people, rooted in God’s love, is most exemplified at the Georgia Infirmary. Since its founding in 1832, the Infirmary has existed to serve those who have historically had the least access to care. It became one of the first nursing schools for African Americans in the country. It was the nation’s first Medicare-certified Comprehensive Outpatient Rehabilitation Facility.

It pioneered the SOURCE program, which remains the only statewide site of its kind still offering case management services to elderly and disabled Georgians. That legacy of doing what others have not done, for people who are too often overlooked, is not background context for this residency program. It is the program’s foundation.

Residents who train at the Georgia Infirmary Health Center carry that mission into their clinical work every day. They learn to see patients not simply as cases to be managed, but as members of a community whose health is shaped by factors far beyond a single appointment. They develop the skills, the perspective, and the genuine sense of purpose that define the most impactful physicians. St. Joseph’s/Candler believes that training in a place like the Georgia Infirmary does not just make better doctors. It makes better people.

SJ/C Residency Program