St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital marks 10th anniversary of new facility

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GREENSBORO, Ga. – November 17, 2023 – Ten years ago this month, St. Mary’s opened the new Good Samaritan Hospital on Lake Oconee Parkway, ushering in a new era of quality health care for the greater Greene County region. On Nov. 9, hospital leaders and staff were joined by physicians, volunteers and supporters from across the community to celebrate the occasion.

Creating the new hospital was driven by St. Mary’s Mission to be a transforming healing presence in the community. From day one, the goal of leaders, staff and providers has been to enable people of the region to receive the care they need in their own community, close to home, delivered by people they know and trust.

The current facility replaced 1940s-era Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital, briefly known as Saint Joseph at East Georgia prior to St. Mary’s acquiring its certificate of need and taking over management and operations in 2012. A beloved fixture in the community for some 63 years, the 1949 facility was too small and outdated to accommodate modern technology and meet the needs of the growing community.

With financial backing from Catholic Health East, now Trinity Health, St. Mary’s undertook a $40 million project to build a replacement hospital on Lake Oconee Parkway. At the same time, the newly created Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation embarked on an ambitious campaign to raise an additional $8 million to elevate the technologies and services available at the new hospital.

The campaign was a success. Among the many benefits it provided was a then-state-of-the-art 64-slice CT scanner. The machine provided images quickly enough and detailed enough to use in emergency stroke treatment and evaluating blood vessel health – results people of the community previously had to travel to Athens, Atlanta or Augusta to receive.

Architects designed the hospital to reflect the latest thinking about the hospital as a healing environment. Large windows let in lots of natural light, helping patients, staff and visitors feel the natural rhythms of day and night. Inpatient rooms, surgical suites, treatment areas, waiting rooms and common areas were created to be spacious and comfortable, and designed to accommodate future technologies.

The innovations were and are part of Good Samaritan Hospital’s focus on expanding access to certain medical specialists typically found only at large urban hospitals. A good example is Good Sam’s telehealth capability, which allows doctors at the hospital to consult with neurology specialist remotely via a secure video system for stroke patients in the emergency department. This capability may allow patients to remain at Good Sam rather than having to be transferred to another facility.

Innovations also have made the hospital attractive to specialists who are interested in practicing in the region. An example is Dr. John Layher, a cardiologist and co-founder of Oconee Heart and Vascular Services, part of St. Mary’s Medical Group, with a main office near Athens. Dr. Layher opened an OHVC satellite office near the hospital and regularly uses the hospital for services such as pacemaker implantation and follow-up, nuclear stress testing, exercise stress testing and CT cardiac calcium scoring.

With all its features and amenities, the hospital saw rapid growth. Since 2013, mammography has grown almost 83 percent, CT scanning is up 79 percent, and emergency room visits have climbed 62 percent. Some 1,200 volunteers have served at the hospital, and 100 medical residents from the Augusta University/University of Georgia Internal Medicine Residency Program have rotated through.

Not knowing the COVID pandemic was just around the corner, the Good Sam Foundation launched a $3 million capital campaign in September 2019 to build the facility’s first expansion, bring MRI services into the building in a dedicated permanent suite, updated to a 320-slice CT scanner, and create a dedicated space for cardiac stress testing. Despite the pandemic, the community came through and the campaign exceeded its goal. In fact, it was so successful, the hospital was able to leapfrog to a 640-slice CT scanner, the first such system to be installed in a critical access hospital in the state.

As St. Mary’s celebrates the 10^th anniversary of opening the new Good Samaritan Hospital, the future of health care looks unsettled. But with the support of the community and the far-sighted vision of the new hospital’s creators, St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital is in a strong position to continue providing quality care for the next 10 years and beyond.

Trinity Health of Georgia President/CEO Stonish Pierce, left, poses for a photo with Good Samaritan Hospital board members, foundation board members, and community members (from left to right): Joan Antone, Dr. Dave Ringer, Nicholas Antone, Jean Meyer, John Foos, Becky Smith, Avis Dickey and Dr. William Parks.

Associate Chief Nursing Officer Kimberly Tyler, left, and Tammy Screws, Di Bracewell, Lisa Batchelor, Andrea Johnston, Camille Scoggins, Sheila Hull and Jan Embry pose for a photo in front of a celebratory balloon arch.