The corporation shall have all the powers and authority inhering in, or conferred upon, counties in the State of Alabama operating public hospitals, except as otherwise provided, as well as the following specific powers, together with all powers incidental thereto or necessary to the discharge thereof in corporate form:

(1) To have succession by its corporate name for the duration of time, which may be in perpetuity, specified in its certificate of incorporation or until dissolved as provided in Section 22-21-191;

(2) Subject to the limitations contained in the provisions of this section, to maintain actions and have actions maintained against it in its own name in civil, including ex delicto and ex contractu, actions;

(3) To adopt and make use of a corporate seal and to alter the same at pleasure;

(4) To adopt bylaws and amend the same;

(5) To receive, acquire, take and hold, whether by purchase, gift, lease, devise or otherwise, real and personal property of every description and to manage and dispose of the same by any form of legal conveyance or transfer;

(6) To acquire, construct, equip, enlarge, improve, maintain and operate one or more hospitals and to do all things necessary to that end;

(7) To contract with any institution for the instruction of medicine to provide training for nurses, technicians and other technical, professional and paramedical personnel upon such terms, conditions and number of years as they may determine;

(8) To conduct training schools;

(9) To provide scholarships for students to be engaged in essential duties peculiar to the operation of such hospitals in such manner as they may determine;

(10) To select and appoint medical staff and dental staff members and others licensed to practice the healing arts and to delineate and define the privileges granted each such individual;

(11) To affiliate with, and contract to, provide training and clinical experience for students of other institutions, upon such terms and conditions as it may determine;

(12) To rent, lease or contract for the operation of any department, section, equipment or holdings of the corporation, upon such terms and conditions as it may determine;

(13) To borrow money for any corporate purpose and to issue interest-bearing securities, including bonds, notes and certificates of indebtedness, in evidence of any such borrowing;

(14) To mortgage, pledge or otherwise convey its property and its revenues from any source;

(15) To appoint and employ such officers and agents, including attorneys, as the business of the corporation may require;

(16) To establish, collect and alter charges for services rendered and supplies furnished by it;

(17) To make all needful or appropriate rules and regulations for the conduct of any hospital owned or operated by it and to alter such rules and regulations;

(18) To provide for such insurance as the corporation may deem advisable;

(19) To cooperate with the State Board of Health and the State Department of Mental Health;

(20) To make such contracts with either of said agencies as the board of directors of the corporation may deem advisable respecting the operation of any hospital;

(21) To receive and accept grants from the United States of America, the State of Alabama and any county or municipality located in said state, and from any agency or instrumentality thereof, and to give such assurances, contractual or otherwise, to or for the benefits of any such grantor as may be required in connection with, or as conditions precedent to the receipt of, any such grant;

(22) To give such assurances, contractual or otherwise, and to make such commitments and agreements as may be necessary or desirable to preclude the exercise of any rights of recovery with request to, or the forfeiture of title to, any of its hospitals or other property or any hospital or other property proposed to be acquired by it;

(23) To make and alter rules and regulations for the treatment of indigent patients;

(24) To assume any obligations of any entity that conveys and transfers to the corporation any hospital or hospital properties, or interest therein, provided that such obligations appertain to the hospital or hospital properties so conveyed and transferred to the corporation;

(25) To assume, establish, fund and maintain retirement, pension or other employee-benefit plans for its employees; and

(26) To invest any of its moneys in:

a. Securities that are direct obligations of, or the payment of the principal of and the interest on which is unconditionally guaranteed by the United States of America;

b. Securities that are direct obligations of any agency of the United States of America;

c. Interest-bearing deposits, including certificates of deposits, of any bank organized under the laws of the United States of America, or any state thereof; and

d. Securities of the corporation.