2024 saw many developments in health for the Hall County community.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) John Kueven went over some of the changes and trends in health in 2024 as well as what to look forward to in the new year.
Kueven said 2025 will see the Green Tower opening at their Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) Gainesville campus.
“That’s going to bring an improvement to our emergency departments,” Kueven said. “Better space, better layout, more capacity really to meet the needs of our community.”
Kueven said they will also add a helipad to the roof.
Other developments included expanding their NGMC Braselton location, where they will add inpatient floors that will come in 2025. They also opened NGMC Lumpkin in April of this year.
“For us these all go beyond just buildings, and they certainly improve the lives of the people that we serve in those areas,” Kueven said.
The next topic was on infant and maternal mortality rates, where Georgia ranks 42nd in both according to the latest CDC data.
“Access to OB-GYNs is a big issue,” Kueven said. “We have programs and grants that are the only ones in the country that help us get better at things like determining … potential issues with pregnant moms. We can get grants and improve not only access, but improve preventative care, testing, and making sure that we are really making an impact.”
NGHS director of communications Sean Couch said that they are the lead agency in creating non-profit Hope for Georgia Moms to share data that will lead to the best outcomes for maternal healthcare.
Kueven mentioned that they are nearing the end of the second year of a triennial community health needs assessment report that helps them determine where the biggest needs for access are.
“We got to continue on behavioral health,” Kueven said. “I think suicide prevention is key. We’re going to continue to see diabetes, obesity on that list. Food desert type findings on there.”
Georgia’s need for healthcare providers continues to grow into 2025, and NGHS says they have a plan to meet that need.
“We’ve got an aggressive plan over the next several years to add several hundred providers in a variety of specialities,” Kueven said. “We started our own graduate medical education program where we train physicians right here in Gainesville.”
Kueven also said that new CEO Matt Hanley will take the reins in April for the retiring Carol Burrell.
”She’s been our CEO for the past 14 years, and has done just an incredible job of the growth of this organization, our culture,” Kueven said. “We’ll be welcoming our new CEO Matt Hanley in April, and so Carol's going to help get Matt oriented.”
AccessWDUN is speaking with local officials across Northeast Georgia for a series of Year in Review stories to wrap up 2024.
