Mission Statement
Seale Harris Clinic is committed to providing quality professional healthcare services to its patients through compassionate and innovative care. In fulfillment of this mission, we commit ourselves to the achievement of the following goals:
- To provide high quality, compassionate healthcare services to our patients in the most professionally efficient and cost-effective manner possible;
- To promote the employment, training and retention of an experienced interdisciplinary team of caregivers and administrative support personnel;
- To develop and promote innovative health care programs; and
- To respect those whom we serve and with whom we work as people of dignity and worth.
Our History
Seale Harris Clinic: A Legacy of Quality Healthcare continues…
The legacy of a great and sincere physician continues. Seale Harris Clinic was founded in 1922 by Dr. Seale Harris, one of the major forces of modern internal medicine. The clinic began in a small office in the Empire Building in downtown Birmingham. The practice grew rapidly and moved to Highland Avenue where Dr. Harris built William Gargus Hospital, later to be known as Highland Avenue Baptist Hospital. The hospital was build adjacent to his house, which served as his office. Seale Harris Clinic moved to the newly built Baptist Medical Center Montclair campus.
Dr. Seale Harris was born on March 13, 1870 and was raised in a large, loving family in Cedartown, GA where the golden rule was the law of the home. Dr. Harris received his M.D. from the University of Virginia. Dr. Seale Harris made an amazing career in medicine, notably his discovery of hyperinsulinism.
James F. Crenshaw, M.D., was the successor of the Seale Harris legacy. Dr. Crenshaw undertook a career in medicine with Dr. Harris’ encouragement and throughout his medical education, worked closely with Dr. Harris in research of diabetes and a new diagnostic look, the electrocardiogram. Dr. Crenshaw later served in the Army during World War II and as a member of the Army of Occupation in Japan, was the first physician to use Penicillin in all of Japan. Following the war, Dr. Crenshaw went on to develop Seale Harris Clinic into the stellar diagnostic clinic it is today.
Dr. James F. Crenshaw passed the practice on to his son Dr. James H. Crenshaw who, along with Dr. Jeffrey J. Clifton, continues the legacy today in the OrthoSports Center and Medical Tower on the St. Vincent’s Campus in downtown Birmingham.