But did you know Madison Hospital played a key role in nearly 10 percent of the lifesaving organ transplants performed by Vanderbilt surgeons in 2025?
“We absolutely couldn’t do what we do without Madison Hospital,” said Patricia Newberry, lead outreach transplant coordinator with Vanderbilt Health.
Vanderbilt operates a busy Transplant Outreach Clinic on Hughes Road in Madison. Potential kidney transplant patients seen there are sent to Madison Hospital for an initial chest X-ray and electrocardiogram (EKG), at minimum.
Some also require bloodwork, cardiac stress tests, and additional imaging studies such as MRI, CT, ultrasound or echocardiogram.
Newberry said Madison Hospital employees understand that people sick enough to be considered for organ transplant surgery can’t afford to wait weeks for an imaging appointment, so they go above and beyond to make sure every Vanderbilt patient receives same-day service.
Likewise, radiologists on the hospital’s medical staff prioritize viewing the images and quickly getting the results to Vanderbilt’s transplant team.
In 2025, Vanderbilt Health’s Madison clinic completed nearly 750 appointments. Ninety-seven of those patients went on to have lifesaving transplant surgery. The vast majority were kidney recipients (83), followed by lung (6), heart (4), liver (2), and pancreas (2).
“The folks at Madison Hospital are a significant part of changing these patients’ lives, and I want them to realize the difference they are making,” Newberry said.
“Not only do they go out of their way to accommodate our patients, but they show compassion and professionalism while performing these complex tasks.”
Madison Hospital’s relationship with Vanderbilt dates to 2015, when Vanderbilt Health opened a small, part-time clinic on the hospital campus to screen kidney transplant candidates.
Now located on Hughes Road and also serving heart, lung, liver and pancreas transplant candidates, it has become the busiest of Vanderbilt’s six transplant outreach sites (the others are in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Jackson and Clarksville, Tennessee, and Newburgh, Indiana, near Evansville).
The Madison clinic serves patients from across Alabama, parts of Mississippi and as far away as Florida. Before leaving town, they go to Madison Hospital for any imaging studies requested by the transplant team.
“We’re happy to do it because it saves them from having to drive all the way to Nashville,” said Kimberly Van Pamel, Madison Hospital imaging and cardiology manager. “And the patients seem to like coming here because we’re a smaller community hospital with a less intimidating atmosphere.”
“All of us got into health care to make a difference,” she added, “and it’s great to know we have made a difference for these patients.”