The Medical Center Foundation Healthy Journey

The journey continues . . .

The Medical Center Foundation Foundation board and staff are hard at work on the Healthy Journey campaign, building on the strong legacy of our past and improving care for generations to come.

Hospice of Northeast Georgia Medical Center

Hospice of Northeast Georgia Medical Center provides compassionate end-of-life care for terminally ill individuals of all ages and support for their families. Hospice aggressively works to relieve symptoms of the illness while promoting the dignity of the patient through supportive care to help maintain control over their final months of life.

All appropriate patients are accepted for hospice services regardless of their ability to pay. In addition to indigent families, many middle-income families face desperate financial situations during the terminal phase of an illness. Funding helps hospice patients throughout northeast Georgia spend their last days at home surrounded by their loved ones. It also helps provide bereavement care and counselors for the families of hospice patients for 13 months after the patients’ death.

Safe Kids Gainesville/Hall County

Accidental injuries are the number one killer of children ages 14 and under in the United States. Each year one out of every four children needs medical attention for a preventable injury.

Safe Kids Gainesville/Hall County has been leading the battle against accidental childhood injuries since 1992. Funding through Healthy Journey helps teach caregivers how to avoid injuries, provide critical child safety devices to those who cannot afford them, advocate for new and stronger safety legislation, collect local injury data to identify who is most affected by which injuries, and build a strong community task force committed to changing the conditions that put children at risk.

The broad base of community partners established through Safe Kids works together to touch the lives of thousands of children each year with a wide variety of injury prevention programs.

Radiation Oncology Renovation and Expansion

The Cancer Center at Northeast Georgia Medical Center is the largest provider of cancer care in northeast Georgia and has been ranked in the top six percent of cancer centers in the nation by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer.

For more than 30 years, the physician specialists and highly-trained staff of the Radiation Oncology department at The Cancer Center at NGMC have provided compassionate, experienced care for thousands of patients. In the last decade, radiation therapy patient volumes have increased from 20 to 30 per day to 80 to 90 per day.

Healthy Journey will fund the renovation and expansion of NGMC’s Radiation Oncology department to help accommodate this immense growth, providing a warm and inviting environment.

Nursing and Allied Health Scholarships & Continuing Education

The tremendous shortage of healthcare professionals continues to worsen in Georgia and across the nation, making recruitment and retention of qualified nursing and allied health professionals* a highly competitive and difficult process.

To help address the crisis in our community, continued funding for scholarships will support a dedicated effort by NGHS to recruit college students seeking clinical education as well as retain current staff by providing continuing education opportunities. In both programs, individuals will work at NGHS in lieu of repaying the actual dollars provided for education.
*Allied health professionals work in clinical settings other than nursing. Examples are lab and x-ray technicians and medical and radiation technologists.

Indigent Patient Fund

A special fund is utilized by the Case Management Department at NGHS to provide financial assistance for indigent patients to obtain urgently needed services such as discharge medications and transportation. Individuals eligible for these funds are those patients whose needs cannot be met through primary insurance, their own personal funds, government programs or other charitable services.

Funds will be used to help patients discharged from NGHS who need transportation assistance or short term assistance with urgent prescription medication needs. This fund helps to ensure medication compliance and maximize conditions for recovery and recuperation.

New Horizons North – Commons Area, Dining Rooms and Courtyard Renovations

New Horizons North (NHN) is a skilled nursing facility built in the mid-1980s in need of renovation to enhance the quality of life for its residents including the commons area, dining rooms and courtyard by creating a more pleasant and home-like atmosphere.

*The Medical Center Auxiliary has committed to fund this initiative through MarketPlace.

Ronnie Green Heart Center

Northeast Georgia Medical Center has earned national recognition and a distinguished reputation for its comprehensive range of cardiac services.  In fact, it has once again been ranked number one in Georgia and in the top five percent in the nation for cardiac care, according to the annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study.  The Ronnie Green Heart Center offers intensive cardiac medical and surgical inpatient care to the residents of northeast Georgia.

Healthy Journey will provide funding to relocate the Ronnie Green Heart Center within NGMC’s South Patient Tower to a newly updated space with fast, direct access to the state-of-the-art operating suites.  The heart center’s new home will feature advanced monitoring systems and help consolidate cardiac services, increasing continuity of care for heart patients.

Region II STEMI Project

Heart disease continues to be the number one killer of adults in Georgia. For individuals experiencing a heart attack, TIME = HEART MUSCLE. The faster they are treated, the more heart muscle is saved. Healthy Journey will fund a regional STEMI (S-T Elevated Myocardial Infarction) project that will dramatically improve the way acute heart attack patients are treated in Georgia’s Region II, which encompasses Hall and the surrounding 13 counties.

Funding will be used to acquire and install transmission equipment in all Region II EMS vehicles interested in participating in our regional STEMI protocols as well as those local ERs that wish to be involved in the diagnosis and treatment of STEMI patients, speeding treatment of heart patients and saving lives.

SANE Program: Colposcope with Video Monitoring/Recording

The SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) Program at NGHS began in 1990 to provide a standardized approach to evidence collection in sexual assault cases.

Following the program’s conception and introduction into the courtroom, conviction rates of sexual predators in our community have improved significantly. Nothing speaks louder to jurors than raw pictures of the victims’ injuries. In this type of sensitive case, the ability to capture microscopic injuries is of the utmost importance.

Funding will replace outdated photo equipment with a state-of-the-art digital imaging system, improving the clarity and precision of vital forensic evidence. The superior images, particularly in young children, can make a real difference in prosecution decisions based on the visibility of evidence. The new equipment will also shorten exam and evidence collection times victims must endure following their assault.

Health Access Initiative

Health Access Initiative (HAI) is a physician-driven project of the Hall County Medical Society that seeks to improve access to medical care for Hall County's low-income, uninsured adults. A volunteer panel of 160 physicians participates.

Health Access Initiative focuses on specialty care and is not a direct healthcare provider. Instead, HAI works to connect patients who qualify with volunteer physicians and other caregivers in the network who agree to see patients. HAI allows working people in Hall County who make too much to qualify for Medicaid (but who cannot afford medical insurance or medical care) to receive the medical attention they need. Funding will support the continued success of this vital program.

The Annual Medical Center Open Golf Tournament

A community health improvement project is funded each year through proceeds of the Medical Center Open Golf Tournament. Since 1997, the Open has raised nearly $2 million for community projects that address specific health improvement needs in our community such as the Good News Dental Clinic, the Salvation Army Centers of Hope, CASA and more. The tournament is proud to unite area businesses, civic organizations, agencies and individuals to improve the health of northeast Georgia.

Community Walks

NGHS employees generously support the local American Heart Association’s Heart Walk, American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and March of Dimes’ March for Babies, which raises funds to combat heart disease, cancer and infant mortality.

Signature Gifts

Signature gifts to The Medical Center Foundation to fund naming opportunities have made a tremendous difference at NGHS and improved the health of our community.

Since 1997, signature donors have provided over $18 million to fund critical projects including the Ronnie Green Heart Center, W.D. Stribling Heart Clinic, Walters Auditorium, Dawn McKibbon Memorial Chapel, Anne's Garden, the Resource Center, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit expansion, the Auxiliary Conference Room, and the Nathan-Schrage Art Gallery just to name a few.

A wide range of naming opportunities is available. Individuals interested in establishing a legacy while providing projects and programs that would not otherwise be possible are invited to contact The Medical Center Foundation for additional information.