Habersham Medical Center to Join NGHS in 2023 as Leaders Reach Agreement

Howdy, my name is Luke Crawford and as some of you know, I have a lot of family from Toccoa, Georgia, and surrounding areas. In fact, my great-grandparents actually owned a drug store in Downtown Cornelia for many years that unfortunately did not make it through the great depression.

Due to my family ties to the area, I have always paid close attention to the 985 corridor running from the Mall of Georgia up to Dillard.

This corridor has seen a lot of growth over the past decade with the addition of Lanier Technical College, the Northeast Georgia Inland Port, Kubota, and many other businesses. This increased growth has certainly called for a large growth in housing needs, along with a growth in medical needs. This acquisition by NGHS will be a huge help for the 985 corridor and North Georgia as a whole.

The struggling Habersham Medical Center has been acquired by the larger Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) in an expedited deal to prevent the closure of the financially struggling hospital. The acquisition added 53 beds, an 84-bed skilled nursing facility, and a home health agency to NGHS, bringing their total hospital bed count to 852. NGHS aims to turn around Habersham Medical Center by leveraging patient trust in the Northeast Georgia system and plans to provide additional staff and switch to the Epic electronic health record system. The acquisition comes at a time when Georgia hospitals face financial challenges, with several rural hospitals having closed in recent years. Despite these challenges, NGHS remains confident in its future and recently gained Level 1 trauma center designation for its Gainesville hospital.

You can read more about the acquisition by clicking here.