South metro officials are ramping up efforts to replace Atlanta Medical Center South, which was the only full-service Fulton County emergency department south of I-20. Wellstar Health System closed the East Point hospital last spring.
Since then, city officials have been looking at how to bring in a new hospital system.
“We need to have a provider at that location or providers who are willing to and able to provide acute level services, ER and hospital services. I remain committed and I’m continuing to work to ensure a comprehensive model of care, primary and all the services in between,” said East Point Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham.
The need for access to health care became even more urgent after Wellstar closed a second metro hospital in 2022 — AMC Main in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, citing rising operating expenses.
Now, East Point city officials are discussing a host of ways to raise funding and approval for a new hospital.
“There are multiple business models in how we can make this successful,” East Point City Councilman Joshua Butler IV told WABE.
He’s promoting an idea to establish a new regional hospital authority. In November, Butler held a community meeting about the idea at East Point City Hall.
Georgia law would require the city to partner with a neighboring city in order to form a hospital authority and raise needed funds.
The proposal is still in its early stages and still has a long way to go before it could become a reality.
Ingraham said she couldn’t comment on the proposal for a new hospital authority until the idea is formally proposed and considered before the city council.
Meanwhile, the city is collaborating with researchers at Morehouse School of Medicine on an ongoing grant-funded project to gather data and resident input on the most pressing health disparities in the community to create what officials hope will be a sustainable model for health care that includes a full-service hospital.
“I think there are ways to get there. And we just are trying to do all we can while that certificate of need is still in place so that those services are still able to be provided there,” Ingraham said.
