North Georgia Medical Center is growing the greater good and making improvements. With a new patient tower coming soon, the hospital system is excited to revamp its healthcare. Read on to learn about the new expansions, exciting surgeons and new locations for Northeast Georgia Health Systems.
Gainesville’s New Patient Tower
Soon to be at the heart of it all is the new patient tower in Gainesville, complete with a helipad on the rooftop and set to be open in 2025.
“This new tower is designed with the greater good in mind,” said Carol Burrell, President and CEO of NGHS at the ground-breaking. Located next to the existing North Patient Tower on the Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville campus, the project includes an 11-story, 663,000 foot expansion. It broke ground in March of last year and is planned to include a variety of improvements and innovations.
The Georgia Heart Institute and North Georgia Medical Center’s (NGMC) heart and vascular patients will be transitioning into the new patient tower on the campus. The current units for cardiovascular patients – Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, Critical Care Unit, Cardiovascular Surgery Unit, Progressive Cardiac Care Unit, and Heart Failure – will receive an increase in the number of patient beds when the new tower is open for care in 2025. Services such as diagnostic testing, cardiac caths and open-heart surgery will all be making an improved appearance.
It isn’t only cardiological care that is being upgraded, the comprehensive stroke center services will also have greater access, working to accommodate all levels of inpatient care for neurology patients. The new and more accessible helipad will mean that the emergency department and surgical floor will only be minutes away, whereas in the past patients would have to take a short ambulance trip to get where they need to be. The emergency department will be moved to the ground floor of the new tower, and it will be expanded to accommodate more patients. In February, the North Georgia Medical Center Gainesville was designated a Level 1 Trauma Center. This makes NGMC Gainesville one of five state-designated Level I trauma centers in Georgia and only the fourth nationally-certified Level I trauma center in the state.
In addition to the tower, the beginning of a larger Medical Park is planned for the Highway 60 location. A new Medical Plaza will be built as a 14,000 square foot location off Thompson Bridge Road and will include primary care, bariatric care, behavioral health, gynecology and lab services.
News to get your heart pumping!
In a good, excited way of course. Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) is on the forefront of cardiological care, in addition to a few more new updates in the hospital wings. In 2020, NGHS became the first in the state of Georgia to receive an Emergency Cardiac Care Center designation. That pretty much means you’ve got great heart health care at your fingertips here in Gwinnett and North of Atlanta.
In fact, the hospital system performed its first robotic heart surgery earlier this year in February. Nationally renowned robotic heart surgeon Sloane Guy, MD, came to Northeast Georgia Physicians Group (NGPG) Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery and Georgia Heart Institute in Gainesville last November. He was the first-ever robotic heart surgeon to perform surgeries at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville. Robotic surgery options are less invasive, allow patients to recover faster and are in general just pretty cool!
Big News For Braselton!
Expansion isn’t limited to Gainesville. In Braselton, another project is in the works. You can expect an additional 235,000 square feet of clinical space to be added to the existing hospital. What to expect with all of this new space? A critical care unit, expanded emergency department, operating room support areas and a renovated laboratory are all part of the plan. That space will include two new patient care floors and 150 more acute care beds. On the less surgical side, we can expect kitchen renovations and new parking spaces. Bonus! The Braselton NGMC is getting a new helipad too.
A new medical plaza is anticipated, featuring an Ambulatory Surgery Center. This 100,00 square foot building will also have two floors of physician office space in addition to the four operating rooms and two procedure rooms of the surgery center. What’s an ambulatory surgery center? It’s a facility designed to do same-day surgical care, meaning healthcare for patients in Braselton will be a lot more convenient!
The Emergency Department expansion is anticipated to be complete by 2026 and the new patient care floors to open by Summer 2025.
