New hospital groundbreaking approaches

New details have been revealed for the much-awaited hospital coming to Lumpkin County.
For starters the groundbreaking is scheduled for later this month, according to Northeast Georgia Healthcare System representative Sonja McLendon.
But, she added, delays for the Fall 2023 opening date are always a possibility.
"There's a possibility of an opening in early 2024, due to supply chain issues,” she said. “So it could be January or February 2024 as opposed to October 2023, if we can't get things in time.”
These plans were shown during McLendon’s presentation to Dahlonega’s Sunrise Rotary Club last Thursday at University of North Georgia. McLendon serves as the Chief of Operational Excellence for the Northeast Georgia Healthcare System (NGHS).
Planning for the hospital began back  in 2019, after several meetings with the citizens of Lumpkin County to find what they wanted in the medical facility. Then things stalled when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, according to hospital officials.
Now, however, NGHS is ready to hit the gas on the plans as groundbreaking is set for Wednesday, June 22.
The new hospital campus will be developed along the 57 acres on the intersection between GA 400 and GA Highway 60. There will be amenities not currently available at the North Georgia Medical Center in Dahlonega, such as dining, intensive care, and operating rooms.

MOVING UP

The Dahlonega medical center, located at 227 Mountain Drive, was formerly known as Chestatee Regional Hospital. However, it closed its doors in 2018 and one year later reopened as the North Georgia Medical Center under the NGHS. But, it was just a temporary solution to meet the immediate needs of Lumpkin County while NGHS worked to build the new facility.
McLendon stressed that the new hospital design would be keeping in with the culture of Dahlonega, as well as other NGHS campuses, such as Jefferson and Gainesville.
“It will be something easy to move around in…We want to have consistency no matter where you get care,” she said.
The design of the hospital also reportedly allows for expansion upwards and outwards, although the initial design features plans for 15 to 20 beds, labs, and imaging. There will also be a pharmacy, dining plaza, emergency room, and three operating rooms. This is in keeping with the majority opinion when NGHS asked citizens what they wanted in the new hospital.
It didn’t need to be big, they said, just enough for the community.
"We'll be able to grow as needed…with the community…It's scalable," said McLendon.
In addition to the new hospital, there will be a new medical plaza, complete with an urgent care facility and other specialty practices, such as a Georgia Heart Institute. The opening is also set for Fall 2023.
There have been concerns about the transparency of the NGHS in regards to plans for the hospital, and McLendon fielded questions about plans to inform the community going forward.
In particular, Sunrise Rotary member Nick Shreiber referenced a recent letter to the editor published in The Nugget in which the writer was hoping for more updates.
“People have been asking about the hospital for a while now,” he said. “…Even writing letters to the paper…Do you plan to keep the community involved in the process going forward?”
McLendon responded by saying that officials at NGHS plan to keep the public updated along the way.
"We fully intend to keep the community informed through press releases to local newspapers,” she said. “We want to be completely transparent.”