SAINT JOSEPH'S, St. Josephs Hospital, Greensboro Georgia, Greene County GA.
Old Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital now Saint Joseph's Heath Systems of Atlanta
New hospital building to be built south at Reynolds Plantation area on Highway 44
SAINT JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL Greensboro
1201 Siloam Road, GA. Highway 15
Greensboro, GA. 30642
Hospital Phone Number 706-453-7331
Fax: (706) 453-2812
SAINT JOSEPH'S, St. Josephs Hospital Emergency Entrance,
Greensboro Georgia, Greene County GA.
Old Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital
December 1, 2007 Greensboro's long-troubled Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital is changing hands again, three years after a Florida-based company pulled the medical facility from the brink of shutting down.
St. Joseph's Hospital System of Atlanta, which is expected to own the hospital at the end of year, won't close it right away, but that's all patients and employees know right now.
And news of the sale once again has spurred talk of a new regional medical center for Greene and surrounding counties.
In 2004, Pacer Health Corp. bought the rural community's 25-bed hospital for a song, just days before the then-nonprofit facility was set to close following a long period of financial loss and poor management.
Before Pacer bought it, residents speculated that if the old hospital closed, private clinics in the county would compete for its certificate of need - the state-issued license needed to provide medical care in an area - in order to build a new hospital near the county's affluent Lake Oconee community.
Instead, the certificate went to Pacer in the sale, which kept the hospital open and tried to improve its reputation.
Now St. Joseph's, a respected metropolitan specialty hospital not known for buying other hospitals, is set to take over both the Boswell Hospital operation and its certificate of need.
"For the time being, everything is going to be the same," said Lynn Peterson, spokeswoman for the Atlanta hospital.
Boswell Hospital for now will stay where it is on the east side of Greensboro as a hospital with emergency services, Peterson said.
But St. Joseph's looks at the purchase as a way to expand the medical specialties it already offers in Greene County, she said, referring to the private Cowles Clinic at Lake Oconee. St. Joseph's physicians for two years have offered services there like cardiology, podiatry and plastic surgery.
St. Joseph's also plans to consult with neighboring hospitals and physicians "to further strengthen health care in the region," St. Joseph's CEO Kirk Wilson said in a statement announcing the purchase.
St. Joseph's officials have no firm long-term plans, however, Peterson said.
Before announcing the sale, Pacer had been planning to build a new hospital west of Greensboro near Interstate 20 in what the company said would be a central location, within reach both for residents of the gated lake communities and poorer longtime locals on the east side of Greene County.
St. Joseph's directors eventually may look to move the hospital, officials said, but it's unclear whether they would want the site Pacer had in mind or some place closer to the lake.
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