DeKalb County commissioners on Tuesday approved a total of $20 million aimed at helping offset the impact of Atlanta Medical Center’s looming closure.
The commission voted unanimously to send an additional $8 million to Grady Memorial Hospital, which figures to be most heavily impacted by AMC’s plans to shutter by Nov. 1. It voted 6-0-1, with Commissioner Jeff Rader abstaining, to send another $12 million to Emory Hillandale Hospital.
The money will help the south DeKalb facility expand its emergency room and renovate its intensive care unit, among other things.
“Today’s vote by the Board of Commissioners will save lives and strengthen the healthcare safety net for tens of thousands of residents in DeKalb County and metro Atlanta,” DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond, who pitched the expenditures last week, said in a press release.
Historically, anywhere from 20-30% of Atlanta Medical Center’s patients are DeKalb County residents. Thurmond and other officials have said the closure will wreak havoc on metro Atlanta’s health care system, leaving Grady as the area’s only Level 1 trauma center.
The new allocation DeKalb is sending to that hospital is in addition to the county’s annual contribution, which this year amounts to a little over $22 million. The $8 million addition will help offset an operating deficit driven by hospital’s need to use contract nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
State officials have also pledged a $130 million contribution to help Grady expand its operations, but that work is likely to take at least two years.
While Emory Hillandale is some 18 miles to the east, DeKalb officials hope expansion there will help alleviate some of the pressure on Grady by sending non-Level 1 trauma patients elsewhere. They also believe the work will be completed more quickly than the larger Grady expansion.
DeKalb’s money will include $4.7 million to add 15 bays to Hillandale’s emergency department waiting room and $4.5 to renovate the ICU.
It also earmarks $1.7 million to replace the hospital’s current CT scanner; $1.1 million for the creation of a “trauma recovery center,” described as a hospital-based violence prevention program; and $250,000 for an initiative aimed at helping eligible uninsured residents register for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and other programs.
As proposed, the $8 million for Grady would come from the county’s federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. The Emory Hillandale expenditures would include about $3 million from ARPA and $8.9 million from the county’s general fund reserves.
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