This is the third in a series of articles reported in Northwest Georgia, an area rich in stories about unmet health needs and about people and programs making a difference. Georgia Health News and the health and medical journalism graduate program at UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication collaborated to produce this series, made possible by support from the Healthcare Georgia Foundation and the Institute of International Education.
The safest hospital for patients in Georgia, according to a well-recognized measure, probably isn’t the first one most people would guess — assuming they’ve even heard of it.
Gordon Hospital sits near I-75 in Calhoun, in Northwest Georgia. Operated by Adventist Health System, which is affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the hospital proclaims its religious message from lobby walls to signage, with a large dove symbol placed in a stained-glass window above a roof.
The Leapfrog Group has given the 69-bed Gordon Hospital straight A’s for patient safety since the ratings debuted in 2012 – the only Georgia hospital to achieve this distinction.
And the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last year gave the Calhoun hospital a five-star rating, its best score. Again, it was the only five-star in the state.
