A new report released by the Georgia Hospital Association estimates Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s impact on the local community and state is more than $3.5 billion.
The GHA report found that, in 2020, NGMC generated $3,554,257,187 in revenue for the local and state economy; provided more than $70 million in total estimated charity care; and sustained more than 22,500 full-time jobs throughout the region and state – in addition to more than 9,000 people directly employed by Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS).
NGHS is the nonprofit that oversees the operation of NGMC’s four campuses in Gainesville, Braselton, Winder, and Dahlonega.
NGMC’s charity care cost includes financial assistance to eligible patients. It does not include unpaid bills that are written off or nearly $12 million NGMC provided in community outreach such as free screenings and health education, the hospital says.
The report revealed that, in 2020, NGMC had direct expenditures of more than $1.5 billion. When combined with an economic multiplier developed by the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total economic impact of those expenditures was more than $3.5 billion, a news release from NGMC states.
This output multiplier considers the “ripple” effect of direct hospital expenditures on other sectors of the economy such as medical supplies, durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. Economic multipliers are used to model the impact of a change in one industry on the “circular flow” of spending within an economy as a whole.
“Northeast Georgia Health System is proud to be an economic pillar in our community and will continue to reinvest in expansion projects, new healthcare technologies and more to better care for our growing community,” says Carol Burrell, president and CEO of NGHS.
Last week, the health system broke ground on a new hospital in Lumpkin County.
The figures in the GHA study only reflect the economic impact of hospital expenditures and do not include the impact of other services, such as physician offices and long-term care facilities provided by NGHS.
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