A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday morning for a new Northeast Georgia Health System rehabilitation center in Gainesville.
The new facility will be located on Limestone Parkway just south of Clarks Bridge Road on the site of a grocery store that is still in the process of being demolished. The new facility is expected to be completed and operating by the summer of 2025.
The facility will house patients recovering from serious injury or illness who no longer require hospitalization but are still not fully able to return to independent life at home. Northeast Georgia Health System President and CEO Carol Burrell said the new center will expand NGHS' ability to care for those patients.
"We have great staff and an inpatient rehab unit, but we are not meeting the needs of this entire community," Burrell said. "This facility is going to give us state-of-the-art rehab services that is expanded over what we can currently provide today and more than double the capacity, so we're really excited."
The facility's operations will be a partnership between NGHS and Lifepoint Rehabilitation, a national organization that operates in 41 hospitals across the country. David Stark, Vice President of Hospitals for Lifepoint, said staff from both Lifepoint and NGHS will be present in the facility.
"Lifepoint will manage the day-to-day activities of the hospital," Stark said. "There is a board of managers, though, that is an equal complement of Northeast Georgia and Lifepoint representatives...they're looking at making sure that this hospital is in the direction and the mission vision values of Northeast Georgia hospital and we're taking care of patients appropriately."
Burrell said NGHS is looking forward to partnering with Lifepoint to provide improved rehabilitative care.
"This is what they do across the nation, and they have an incredible track record, incredible outcomes in how they handle these patients," Burrell said. "This gives us a partnership where we are looking at healthcare close to home, but they're able to bring the expertise to complement what we're doing here locally."
Burrell said the site on Limestone Parkway was chosen due to its accessibility to the Northeast Georgia region. The site is located roughly two miles from Interstate 985.
Stark said the facility will be able to house patients dealing with a wide range of issues.
"It's patients that suffer from acute illnesses such as a stroke, brain injuries or maybe an auto accident where you have multiple fractures. Also, other debilitating diseases where you may have lost function, like the inability to walk as well as you used to or if you can't care for yourself the same way," Stark said. "We help patients achieve their maximum function and get them home."
