ATLANTA – Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has created a $200 million fund and formed a partnership with Mercer University School of Medicine to bolster rural healthcare for the youngest Georgians.
The new partnership will fund 10 full scholarships for medical students who study at Mercer and agree to practice pediatric medicine in rural Georgia for four years after completing their training.
The new fund will also support a number of pilot projects to improve pediatric care outside of metro Atlanta. One is aimed at ensuring that eight rural emergency rooms are “kid ready.”
The hospitals that will participate are: Clinch Memorial Hospital, Coffee Regional Medical Center, Crisp Regional Hospital, Dodge County Hospital, Mountain Lakes Medical Center in Rabun County, Taylor Regional Hospital in Pulaski County, Upson Regional Medical Center and Washington County Regional Medical Center.
The new project will also help five rural pediatricians with peer support and additional training: Dr. Grace Davis in Worth County, Dr. Leah Helton in Laurens County, Dr. Brittany Lord in Dodge County, Dr. Jennifer Stroud in Coffee County and Dr. Jennifer Tarbutton in Washington County.
The new partnership will work to develop a “comprehensive approach” to mental health services, including virtual mental health services and suicide prevention programs, in Washington and Jefferson counties.
Children’s will also increase funding for the Atlanta-area Ronald McDonald House charities. These charities provide support – including housing – for families that must travel to Atlanta to get care for their children.
Children’s serves pediatric patients from every Georgia county, with the system providing care to more than 32,000 patients from rural counties last year, CEO Donna Hyland said.
“The purpose of this effort is to expand access to quality care in rural communities and provide rural children with the right care at the right time in the right place,” said Dr. Jean Sumner, dean of the Mercer University School of Medicine, which is the home of the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center.
“We hope that rural pediatricians will be empowered to serve patients … and families will be able to stay closer to home, when possible, for convenient care and follow-up.”
Sumner and Hyland were joined by Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt.-Gov. Burt Jones, state House speaker Jon Burns and former governor Nathan Deal during a Wednesday press conference announcing the partnership at the state Capitol.
State lawmakers and others have, in the past, criticized non-profit hospital systems for allegedly inadequate spending on charity care. Such criticism resulted in the passage of a 2019 GOP-sponsored bill requiring nonprofit hospitals to post financial data on their webpages.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.