Ranked among the Top 10 stress-free cities in the U.S. by Men’s Health magazine in 2004, Lubbock is indeed a healthy place to live.

Yet if you do need medical attention here, major facilities offer the most comprehensive health care services between Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles. Traditional hospitals are Covenant, University and Highland Medical Centers and Southwest Regional Medical Complex, along with some innovative upstarts.

There are also 102 clinics and 36 retirement and nursing homes in the area.

Covenant Health System is the largest healthcare institution in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, with more than 1,330 beds, 5,500 employees and more than 600 admitting physicians.

Founded in 1978, UMC Health System is home to the region’s only Level I Trauma Center and the UMC Southwest Cancer and Research Center.

Some of the nation’s most sought-after heart surgeons and physicians in other specialty areas practice in Lubbock.

In addition, Lubbock offers state-of-the art long-term care facilities such as the Mildred and Shirley L. Garrison Geriatric Education and Care Center and world-renowned institutes for pain and diseases. Located on the campus of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the Garrison Center is an example of collaboration between an established, renowned university and a long-standing senior-care corporation. The 72,000-square-foot facility features a five-wing design and includes 60 beds for skilled care and 60 more to care for patients with Alzheimer’s and other age-related dementia.

Lubbock’s healthcare industry is one of the city’s major employers. The industry’s payroll and related expenditures contribute $736 million to Lubbock’s economy, and its 17,000 workers comprise about 14% of the workforce.

TTU supports the region’s only medical school, which offers educational endeavors in medicine, pharmacy, allied health and nursing — with emphasis on providing rural health care to outlying communities. The new Clinical Tower/Research Center at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center adds 150,000 square feet for the clinical practices of family and internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics, surgery and ophthalmology.

UMC Health System recently completed more than $31 million in construction projects that will help accommodate the hospital’s substantial patient growth. The hospital added a fifth and sixth floor and expanded the Southwest Cancer and Research Center. UMC has 357 beds.