Peach State Bank & Trust has pledged $250,000 to the Northeast Georgia Health System Foundation, the largest sponsorship in the foundation’s 20-plus year history.
The agreement, signed during a brief ceremony Thursday, means Peach State will support the health system’s graduate medical education program for the next five years.
“The uniqueness of this is the community bank, Peach State Bank & Trust, doing something to really improve our community,” Chris Bray, the foundation’s president, said. “I think the partnership between the foundation and Peach State is awesome because this is about getting the residents not only trained here, but hopefully they’ll fall in love with the area and stay here.”
Ron Quinn, president and CEO of Peach State, said supporting programs that benefit the community have been a focus of the bank since it started 15 years ago.
“As we’ve seen the (resident) program grow, we’re exited to continue to support the excellent health care in our community that we’ve been accustomed to,” Quinn said.
The sponsorship will be specifically used to meet each resident’s contribution to The James H. Downey Society, a giving club of active and retired physicians who contribute a minimum of $1,000 that is, in turn, used to enhance medical service delivery in the community.
“Physicians commit a thousand dollars a year into this giving club,” Bray, who also serves as the health system’s chief development officer, said. “Dollars from that society are dictated by the doctors. They have the input on where those dollars are spent. So a thousand-dollar contribution from a doctor becomes a hundred thousand or more fit because of the power of collectivity. They can bring about some major changes to our health care delivery system by spending that money on the needs of the community.”
The resident program welcomed its first class of internal medicine and general surgery physicians in July. Peach State initially agreed to support the inaugural class, before deciding to expand it for the next five years.
Resident physicians are licensed doctors training in a specialty. They train for three to 10 years after medical school, providing patient care and performing procedures under appropriate supervision. They can write orders and prescribe medication. Residents also have educational, testing and evaluation requirements.
Northeast Georgia Medical Center is working to expand to as many as 178 residents across six specialties – internal medicine, family medicine, general surgery, OB/GYN, psychiatry, and emergency medicine – by 2023. That would make NGMC one of the largest graduate medical education programs in the state, with a goal to keep the physician in Hall County and Northeast Georgia region.
