SAINT JOSEPH'S, St. Josephs Hospital, Greensboro Georgia, Greene County GA.
Old Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital now Saint Joseph's Heath Systems of Atlanta
New hospital building to be built south at Reynolds Plantation area on Highway 44
NEW NAME
St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital
SAINT JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL Greensboro Georgia
1201 Siloam Road, GA. Highway 15
Greensboro, GA. 30642
Saint Joseph's Hospital Phone Number
706-453-7331
Fax: (706) 453-2812
SAINT JOSEPH'S, St. Josephs Hospital Emergency Entrance,
Greensboro Georgia, Greene County GA.
Old Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital
-->Greensboro's
long-troubled Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital is changing hands
again, three years after a Florida-based company pulled the medical
facility from the brink of shutting down.
St.
Joseph's Hospital System of Atlanta, which is expected to own the
hospital at the end of year, won't close it right away, but that's all
patients and employees know right now.
And news of the sale once again has spurred talk of a new regional medical center for Greene and surrounding counties.
In
2004, Pacer Health Corp. bought the rural community's 25-bed hospital
for a song, just days before the then-nonprofit facility was set to
close following a long period of financial loss and poor management.
Before
Pacer bought it, residents speculated that if the old hospital closed,
private clinics in the county would compete for its certificate of
need - the state-issued license needed to provide medical care in an
area - in order to build a new hospital near the county's affluent Lake
Oconee community.
Instead, the certificate went to Pacer in the sale, which kept the hospital open and tried to improve its reputation.
Now
St. Joseph's, a respected metropolitan specialty hospital not known
for buying other hospitals, is set to take over both the Boswell
Hospital operation and its certificate of need.
"For the time being, everything is going to be the same," said Lynn Peterson, spokeswoman for the Atlanta hospital.
Boswell
Hospital for now will stay where it is on the east side of Greensboro
as a hospital with emergency services, Peterson said.
But
St. Joseph's looks at the purchase as a way to expand the medical
specialties it already offers in Greene County, she said, referring to
the private Cowles Clinic at Lake Oconee. St. Joseph's physicians for
two years have offered services there like cardiology, podiatry and
plastic surgery.
St.
Joseph's also plans to consult with neighboring hospitals and
physicians "to further strengthen health care in the region," St.
Joseph's CEO Kirk Wilson said in a statement announcing the purchase.
St. Joseph's officials have no firm long-term plans, however, Peterson said.
Before
announcing the sale, Pacer had been planning to build a new hospital
west of Greensboro near Interstate 20 in what the company said would be
a central location, within reach both for residents of the gated lake
communities and poorer longtime locals on the east side of Greene
County.
St. Joseph's
directors eventually may look to move the hospital, officials said, but
it's unclear whether they would want the site Pacer had in mind or
some place closer to the lake.
