James July-August 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 30
Robb Pitts to bring a new hospital to
Union City.
“They actually saw there was
a need, and there was a need even
when those facilities were open,”
Williams said. “I’m not beating the
drum of inequities, but on the north
side, some of those cities have three
hospitals.”
When asked how excited he was
about the new hospital’s opening,
Loke said, “Excitement is an understatement. We are ecstatic about
being able to grow down there. And
not just the freestanding ED [emergency department].”
In May, Wellstar also announced
plans to build a new 230-bed hospital in Acworth. In a news release,
the company said it’s investing $1.4
billion in major projects to improve
access to care in areas including
metro Atlanta and Augusta.
Meeting Demands
Other Georgia healthcare companies continue to grow to meet the
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rising demand for healthcare. For example, Children’s opened the Arthur
M. Blank Hospital in Brookhaven last
September to replace its Egleston
campus nearby. The new hospital
has 446 needed patient beds.
“As the state of Georgia continues to grow, so too does the demand
for our specialized pediatric care,”
Matzigkeit said. “As the only dedicated freestanding pediatric healthcare
system in the state, we must be able
to give every child in Georgia access
to the care they deserve. The need
for a larger facility like the 2-millionsquare-foot Arthur M. Blank Hospital
was made abundantly clear after we
opened last September. Within the
first two months, we were regularly
seeing days nearing capacity with
more than 400 patients.”
Matzigkeit added that Children’s
has stepped up its efforts to provide
primary care, addressing behavioral
and mental health and more. For example, it recruited Dr. John Constantino to lead its behavioral and mental
health efforts and help fill in gaps
in the continuum of care. And since
he arrived at Children’s, Matzigkeit
noted, “he has helped recruit more
than 250 professionals to help care
for and treat patients.” And, she
added, “In 2023, we opened the Zalik
Behavioral and Mental Health Center
to provide prevention, outpatient
treatment services and crisis recovery services.”
PruittHealth, a Norcross-based
company that provides a network of
post-acute health care and senior services, is also expanding. “We’ve added four new assisted living facilities,”
said Chairman and CEO Neil Pruitt Jr.
“We plan to close on another assisted living facility soon. That means
a 62 percent increase in the assisted living/senior living service line.
We also recently added two skilled
nursing facilities in the Macon/Warner Robins area and a third is forthcoming for that area. With the new
centers we’ll be at 117 healthcare centers. We’re privileged to serve 26,000
