It is the home to a Comprehensive Specialized Hospital at HU serving a large number of people in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region and the neighboring communities from Oromia region.

Health/Referral campus, also known as College of Health Sciences and Medicine, was initially established in 1997 as a Faculty of Health under the then Dilla College of Teacher Education and Health Sciences. In 2002, the Faculty of Health was relocated into Hawassa and expanded its programmes and services to become what is now the Health/Referral Campus offering a large number of academic programmes in Medicine & Health Sciences at undergraduate, graduate, specialty and PhD level. Health campus renders a wide variety of services in its neurosurgery, orthopedic and oncology centers.