Wellstar Health System has proposed building a 230-bed hospital in an affluent area near Acworth, saying it would address the growing need for hospital beds in the area. The facility would sit in Cobb County, where Wellstar already owns all the hospitals, including its flagship Wellstar Kennestone in Marietta.
It’s just a proposal so far. To build, Wellstar will have to get the state’s approval that a hospital is needed in that area, called a “Certificate of Need.” Wellstar will also have to survive any challenges that could come from the other hospital systems in the area who don’t want the competition and say it’s not necessary.
“Wellstar is improving access to care, and this new hospital is the latest in a series of projects that do just that,” said Candice L. Saunders, president and CEO of Wellstar Health System. “The area is growing so much that even when our new tower at Wellstar Kennestone opens next year, the region will need more hospital beds. A new hospital in Acworth would fill a crucial need for the region’s medical care.”
Lisa Cupid, chairwoman of the Cobb County Commission, said in a statement that access to health care has expanded in Cobb, but there is still an unmet need for hospital beds in the northern portion of the county.
“Wellstar is deeply committed to our region, and we’re grateful that they recognized this need and are stepping forward with a solution,” Cupid said.
The move cements a transformative period for Wellstar, in which the system has shut down two hospitals that served poorer populations in Atlanta and south Fulton County — including a major trauma center in downtown Atlanta — and invested in other opportunities for growth, including breaking ground on a new hospital in another affluent area, near Augusta.
The arc of change has drawn criticism from advocates saying health care should be about patients, not money.
The 2022 closures of Atlanta Medical Center and AMC-South increased delays for patients trying to get to the emergency room in those areas and caused lasting ripple effects for the emergency room burden on other hospitals. On Tuesday afternoon, emergency rooms at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and Emory University were both diverting incoming ambulances because they were overcrowded.
But Wellstar has stressed its hospitals and clinics still see large numbers of low-income and indigent patients across the state, adding up to more than $1 billion a year in charity care. It also touts projects such as aiming to provide rural hospitals with access to specialty care through a project with the Medical College of Georgia’s Center for Digital Health.
Wellstar’s proposed Acworth hospital is within 5 miles of some of the wealthiest Census tracts in the state. Median household incomes near the site are as high as $175,000 in some areas.
The new Wellstar hospital’s planned location near the Cobb-Paulding County line would be directly across Cobb Parkway from Wellstar Acworth Health Park, which already houses several doctors offices and an urgent care clinic.
A half-mile away is Cedarcrest Road, a busy, suburban corridor that is home to several sprawling neighborhoods, including the Governors Towne Club, Bentwater and Seven Hills, along with golf courses, swimming pools and tennis courts.
The Governors Towne Club calls itself “Atlanta’s Premiere Private Golf & Country Club Community,” with residential homes valued between $500,000 and $1 million.
The median household income in the Census tract for the proposed hospital is $104,000 a year, well over the state average of $75,000.
Homes are still being built in the area, with the Paulding County school system opening Crossroads Middle School last year to accommodate the growing population.
Several major health systems own hospitals that residents can get to, but not close by.
Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood is thrilled.
“You’ve got to have good quality health care,” Allegood said, adding that Wellstar has been the key to that pillar. “They’ve become our quality-of-life partner.”
Allegood described a concerted effort by the city over the past two decades to attract development, homeowners and businesses to the area. “You’ve got these demographics that have been just a total transformation in the last 20 years,” he said.
Alex Gossett, who lives in the Seven Hills neighborhood, said he is a paramedic and feels a new hospital is needed.
“As a local paramedic transporting to over-capacity hospitals, and a future nurse, I fully approve of this development,” Gossett told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Hospitals before more houses. It’ll be nice to have a hospital that is a 10-minute commute.”
Health industry analyst Jim Price, principal at Progressive Healthcare Inc., said the move is a great one for Wellstar in a market that’s already got four strong competing health systems.
“To me, this is kind of staking out the interstate (I-75) going north almost to Tennessee,” Price said.
Wellstar said it would file its Certificate of Need application by June 23. Representatives for neighboring hospital systems did not immediately respond to questions of whether they would contest the application.
AJC Data Specialist Jennifer Peebles contributed to this story.
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