Augusta University Health System, Wellstar Health System announce letter of intent for statewide health care partnership

The brand new partnership would additionally broaden the academic and analysis missions of Augusta College and allow a broader affiliation between Wellstar Well being System and the college’s Medical Faculty of Georgia

AUGUSTA, Ga., Dec. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Augusta College Well being System (AUHS) has signed a letter of intent with Wellstar Well being System to type an revolutionary new partnership that may broaden Augusta College’s academic and analysis missions and permit Wellstar Well being System to create a broader affiliation with the college’s Medical Faculty of Georgia (MCG) as AUHS joins the Wellstar Well being System.

The potential partnership is the end result of a considerate and deliberate course of begun in 2019 by AUHS, its governing board and Augusta College to strategically develop MCG whereas increasing and bettering each affected person care and Georgians’ entry to well being care companies throughout the state.

The proposed partnership would innovate scientific care, coaching and analysis whereas adopting a profitable mannequin of bringing collectively community-based well being programs and tutorial medical facilities resembling MCG and its instructing hospitals. MCG and Augusta College are a part of the College System of Georgia (USG), and MCG serves as the one public medical faculty within the state.

“AUHS, Augusta College and the Wellstar Well being System have a shared mission to resolve Georgia’s well being care challenges,” USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue mentioned. “By becoming a member of forces and dealing collectively, we will leverage Wellstar’s scientific platform and modern programs to assist sufferers whereas offering extra alternatives for college kids to study, practice and look after residents in native communities throughout Georgia.”

Pending a definitive settlement and regulatory approval, the partnership would deal with three strategic initiatives:

• Increasing digital well being choices to create extra handy entry to care and supply extra individualized care no matter location.
• Rising the pipeline of physicians and different well being care suppliers serving Georgia by rising the variety of college students who practice and conduct analysis by way of MCG.
• Growing new therapies, revolutionary care choices and scalable care fashions to optimize the well being and well-being of each affected person.

“By bringing Augusta College Well being System along with Wellstar Well being System and leveraging our respective strengths, we’d enhance the well being of the group, tackle social determinants of well being and broaden entry to high quality look after all Georgians,” mentioned Candice L. Saunders, FACHE, president and chief government officer of Wellstar Well being System.

Whereas there are points of the proposed partnership but to be decided, the partnership would possible end in vital investments to enhance current healthcare services and to broaden entry to care throughout the state, together with a brand new hospital and medical workplace buildings in Columbia County.

“Offering well being care has by no means been as dynamic and sophisticated as it’s right this moment, and this partnership with the Georgia-based, not-for-profit Wellstar Well being System would allow us to increase our mission of bettering well being by way of excellence in affected person care, schooling and analysis for the good thing about Georgians,” mentioned Brooks A. Keel, PhD, performing chief government officer of Augusta College Well being System and president of Augusta College.

Via an expanded affiliation with the college’s Medical Faculty of Georgia, the partnership would tackle the necessity to practice extra physicians and tackle a rising statewide scarcity. With 60 % of MCG graduates getting into a main care residency, coaching extra physicians in these disciplines would assist elevated entry to frontline care offered by specialists resembling household drugs physicians and common pediatricians, particularly in underserved areas of the state.

A brand new instructing campus in Atlanta at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital is also established below the proposed partnership. Because of this, MCG, which already has the ninth-largest freshman medical faculty class within the nation, would develop to grow to be one of many largest public medical colleges within the nation.

“With our whole nation dealing with a doctor scarcity and our state sometimes rating about fortieth within the variety of physicians per capita, educating the following technology of physicians is extra vital than ever,” mentioned David Hess, MD, dean of the Medical Faculty of Georgia and government vice chairman of medical affairs and integration at Augusta College. “I am excited concerning the partnership with Wellstar, since it would allow our college students and residents to proceed to study from a few of the most extremely certified physicians and different well being care professionals within the state whereas permitting MCG to broaden its contributions to bettering public well being in Georgia particularly in additional rural areas.”

About Augusta College Well being System

Augusta College Well being System, in partnership with the Medical Faculty of Georgia, is Georgia’s solely public tutorial well being heart and a spot the place world-class clinicians are bringing the drugs of tomorrow to affected person care right this moment. As the first instructing affiliate of MCG, AUHS offers probably the most complete routine-to-complex care at AU Medical Heart, which homes the area’s solely Stage 1 trauma heart, Kids’s Hospital of Georgia, which homes the areas solely Stage IV NICU, the Georgia Most cancers Heart, in addition to historic Roosevelt Heat Springs Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospitals, a digital care community and greater than 80 main and specialty, and subspecialty care clinics throughout the state. Study extra at augustahealth.org.

About Augusta College

As one among Georgia’s 4 public analysis establishments, Augusta College gives customizable, accessible schooling on campuses in Augusta and throughout the state. Augusta College goals not solely to be completely different, but in addition to make a distinction — to reimagine and recreate the way forward for artwork, know-how, schooling and well being care. House to Georgia’s solely public tutorial medical heart and designated by the state as a well being sciences heart of excellence, Augusta College is devoted to making a safer, more healthy and extra equitable Georgia. Study extra at augusta.edu.

About Wellstar Well being System

As probably the most superior and built-in well being programs in Georgia, Wellstar Well being System would not take a one dimension matches all strategy to healthcare. We offer deeply private care that takes every particular person’s distinctive life story under consideration. With 24,000 group members, nurses and docs, Wellstar offers compassionate, high-quality care. Our group is made up of extra High Medical doctors than some other well being care system in Georgia, throughout almost each specialty. We’re coaching the following technology of clinicians, providing graduate medical schooling that prepares clinicians to ship the very best high quality of well being care to our group. A number of Wellstar services have been acknowledged within the U.S. Information & World Report Finest Hospitals rankings for offering world-class care in quite a lot of specialties, together with cardiology, neurology, most cancers care and pediatrics. As well as, Wellstar Paulding Hospital has been awarded the Malcolm Baldrige Nationwide High quality Award, the nation’s highest stage of recognition for efficiency excellence. Wellstar is the one well being system to have a digital innovation hub – Catalyst by Wellstar. Catalyst by Wellstar is the -first-of-its-kind innovation firm and enterprise agency created and operated inside a well being ecosystem to holistically tackle healthcare disruption by harnessing issues, constructing options, deploying capital and establishing strategic partnerships throughout industries. Wellstar operates the one complete trauma care system within the state with Stage II, Stage III and Stage IV trauma facilities, pediatric emergency departments and a devoted Burn Heart. These facilities assist us serve probably the most vital sufferers with a variety of emergency care choices. Collectively, we’re proud to have served one out of each six Georgians, together with sufferers from 148 out of 159 Georgia counties. We offer almost $1 billion in uncompensated care in Georgia yearly and have been acknowledged as one of many prime 10 suppliers nationally on charity care. Via greater than 450 group partnerships, together with our Wellstar Heart for Well being Fairness, the care we offer in our group extends far past the partitions of our services. And our journey continues as we work to achieve sufferers and households in new communities in new methods— to boost the well being and well-being of each particular person we serve.

SOURCE Wellstar Well being System