Administrative staff for Habersham Medical Center and Northeast Georgia Health Systems were on hand to answer the public’s questions and concerns pertaining to the early acquisition of Habersham Medical Center on July 1st.

The meeting was held Thursday evening in the HEMC community room in anticipation of a large crowd. The audience was made up of mostly government officials, hospital administrators, and members of both hospital authorities, with few citizens in attendance.

The meeting was expected to last more than an hour due to concerns from the public in past meetings. However, the meeting lasted only about 35 minutes.

NGHS and HMC held the meeting out of an “abundance of caution” since the early acquisition agreement was approved in January by the County Commission and both hospital authorities to ensure that state law was followed for the hospital acquisition.

Michele Madison, legal counsel for NGHS, presided over the public hearing with HMC CEO Tyler Williams explaining the need for the early acquisition and John Kueven, President of Northeast Georgia Medical Center, explaining the vision of HMC once NGHS takes over the facility and operations on July 1st.

Dire Straits

Williams explained the dire financial issues that led to the agreement with NGMC in 2019. He also explained the capital investments that NGMC has made since 2019 to improve the position of the hospital operations with the addition of the orthopedic center and the renovation of Habersham Home.

During Williams’ explanation, he referenced a series of news articles that chronicled “the complexities and challenges that we have faced at Habersham Medical Center despite the investment from Northeast Georgia Health System.”

Williams’ continues, “These challenges included the eroding reimbursement of Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurers, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic, increased cost of employee turnover, and the lack of cash reserves.”

HMC’s future rebranding

Upon completion of the transfer of assets from the Habersham County Hospital Authority to the Hall County Hospital Authority and the City of Gainesville, the facility will be leased to Northeast Georgia Health Systems to perform the daily operations and provide services to the community.

Once the acquisition is completed, Habersham Medical Center will be rebranded as Northeast Georgia Medical Center Habersham, LLC.

Future Leadership

During the public hearing presentation, Madison presented the administrators that will be leading the day-to-day operations of the hospital. All of the individuals are currently involved as part of the management services agreement that was approved in January.

The president will be John Kueven. He is currently the President of NGMC Gainesville and, in that role, oversees operations at Northeast Georgia Health Systems hospitals in Winder, Barrow, and Lumpkin counties.

Roy Griffin is the Vice President of Financial Operations for NGHS. Griffin has been working with HMC since January to develop a financial plan to get through to July 1st.

Diane Poirot is the Chief Human Resources Officer for NGHS. She will be managing the personnel needs of the hospital.

Chris Paravate is the Chief Information Officer for NGHS. He has been working at HMC to get the computer networks online with NGMC.

Kevin Matson is the Vice President of Facilities, Support Services.

Service Expansion

NGHS has begun searching for ways to expand services to the Habersham County Community. In July, Dr. Alan Opsahl will begin working at the hospital as a cardiologist. Dr. Amy Howard will begin working at the hospital in the OB/GYN department.

Bob Guthrie was the only member of the public to sign up to ask questions or voice any concerns during the public hearing.

Guthrie asked Madison, “Is there any way that we can get an amendment to the agreement that would give Habersham County the option to purchase the hospital back for the capital investments that Gainesville had made up here should Gainesville ever decide to close the hospital?”

Madison responded, “No one is discussing any amendments to the agreement, but we will absolutely take down your comments, and we can discuss it internally.”

Guthrie explained that this was brought up in 2019 during the original negotiations since the county was responsible for the bonds.

Habersham County livestreamed the hearing on its website. To view the recorded livestream, click here.