Savannah hospitals after a car accident.

AFTER THE AMBULANCE RIDE

Where does the ambulance take you after a Savannah crash?

After a serious crash in Chatham County, the ambulance usually heads to one of three Savannah hospitals. Memorial Health University Medical Center on Waters Avenue is the region’s Level I trauma center, the highest level on the state’s list. Candler Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital also run emergency rooms. Where you go depends on how badly you’re hurt.

Chatham Emergency Services runs 911 ambulance service across all of Chatham County, from Pooler out to Tybee Island. The crew, not you, usually picks the hospital, based on your injuries. Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C. doesn’t give medical advice. What we do is handle the paperwork that follows, from our Savannah injury lawyers at 1 Bull Street. Across Georgia we’ve recovered more than $5 billion for over 300,000 clients in 45 years, from 9 offices, and there’s zero fee unless we win.

Don’t sign anything an insurer sends you in the hospital, or right after you get home, before we talk. Some of those forms ask to see far more of your medical history than the crash. The call is free.

Which hospitals take crash patients around Savannah?

Most people hurt in Savannah-area crashes are taken to Memorial, Candler or St. Joseph’s. Children often go to the children’s emergency room on Memorial’s campus. Hospitals in Springfield and Hinesville serve Effingham and Liberty counties, and patients with the most serious injuries can be moved from there to a higher level of care.

Hospital	Where it is	What to know
Memorial Health University Medical Center	4700 Waters Avenue, Savannah	Level I trauma center on the state list, the highest level, built for the most serious injuries
Dwaine & Cynthia Willett Children’s Hospital emergency room	On Memorial’s campus, entered from Waters Avenue and 63rd Street	A children’s emergency room open around the clock
Candler Hospital	5353 Reynolds Street, facing DeRenne Avenue	Emergency room in midtown Savannah
St. Joseph’s Hospital	11705 Mercy Boulevard, facing Abercorn Street	Emergency room on the south side of Savannah
Effingham Health System	459 Highway 119 South, Springfield	Level IV trauma center with a transfer agreement for patients who need a higher level of care
Liberty Regional Medical Center	462 E.G. Miles Parkway, Hinesville	Level IV trauma center on the state list

Bryan County has no designated trauma center on the state list. In 2025, Memorial Health won approval to build freestanding emergency rooms in Pooler and Richmond Hill, but we couldn’t confirm that either one has opened, so check before you count on one. For the worst injuries, a helicopter may fly the patient in. LifeStar, an air medical program run in partnership with Memorial Health, has bases in Springfield and Hinesville.

The islands have no hospital of their own. Ambulances from Tybee and from the islands east of Savannah head into town on US-80 or the Islands Expressway, and our Tybee Island page covers the one road on and off the island. North and south of Chatham, our Rincon page and our Hinesville page explain how those counties handle crash reports and deadlines.

Not sure which hospital treated you, or which bills are yours? Call 912-715-9288. We’ll help you sort out who has your records.

What can you do in the first few days?

In the first few days after a crash, keep every paper the hospital and the ambulance crew give you. Write down the name of each place that treated you and the date you were there. Follow the care plan your doctors give you and keep your follow-up visits. Then call us before you talk to any insurer.

The ambulance ride has its own record. Chatham Emergency Services keeps patient records at its headquarters on Dean Forest Road and asks for a signed medical release form. The police report matters too, and your crash report from the right agency walks you through which department has it.

You don’t have to come downtown to get started, because a lot of the early work happens by phone. When you’re ready, the Savannah office’s hours and address are on our main office page. Still in the hospital? Tell us, and we’ll come to you.

Got a stack of bills and no idea where to start? Call 912-715-9288 this week. We’ll tell you which ones matter to your claim.

Why do your medical records matter to your claim?

Your medical records are the main proof of what the crash did to you. They show when you were first treated, what the doctors found and what care followed. Your bills show what that care cost. An insurer will read these records closely, looking for anything that suggests you weren’t badly hurt.

Gaps in treatment are a common problem. If weeks pass between the emergency room and your next visit, an adjuster may argue that something else caused your pain. Life gets in the way after a wreck, with work, kids and a car in the shop. Tell your doctor what’s going on, and tell us too.

HIPAA is the federal privacy law for health records. In plain words, it means your records are yours to see. You can ask each hospital, doctor and ambulance service for a copy, including billing records, and federal rules give them a set window to respond. Georgia caps what a provider can charge for copies and updates those rates each July. Once you hire us, you sign a release and we request the records for you.

Our lawyers for Savannah car crash victims use these records to show the full cost of a crash, including care you’ll still need. With a head injury, the notes from the first hours can matter a great deal, and our lawyers for concussion and TBI cases know what to look for. If a big rig hit you, see our page on crashes with port trucks.

Most Georgia injury lawsuits must generally be filed within two years. If a city or county vehicle was involved, notice deadlines are shorter, and our page on the shorter deadlines for government claims lays them out.

What do the words on your hospital paperwork mean?

Hospital and ambulance paperwork uses terms most people don’t hear every day. A few come up in almost every injury claim: trauma center, patient care report, medical release and lien. Knowing what each one means helps you follow what you’re being asked and what you’re agreeing to.

A trauma center is a hospital the state has reviewed and ranked for treating serious injuries. Level I is the highest. Level IV hospitals stabilize patients and can move them to a higher level. A patient care report is the ambulance crew’s record of what they saw and did on the way to the hospital.

A medical release, sometimes called an authorization, is a form that lets someone else get your records. Read what it covers before you sign it. A lien is a claim a hospital or health plan may make on part of your settlement to cover care it provided or paid for. In Georgia, a hospital that treated you after a crash may be able to file one.