Wellstar Health System took over Augusta University’s hospitals Wednesday, finalizing a nearly $800 million pact that dealmakers touted as a way to improve healthcare in Georgia and better train physicians for jobs around the state.
A ceremonial signing Wednesday morning between the leaders of the University System of Georgia, Wellstar and Augusta University Health System cemented the celebration. Augusta University Health, which has long served as a training ground for the Medical College of Georgia, will now be called Wellstar MCG Health.
“We see a different future for health care,” Wellstar CEO Candice Saunders told a crowd of more than 100 state legislators, local elected officials and others who gathered in Augusta to watch final signatures. “We will create a healthier future for all Georgians.”
”There was a palpable sense of optimism and excitement in the room here in Augusta,” University System Chancellor Sonny Perdue told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview beforehand, describing the AU Health board’s meeting ahead of ceding control. The university system oversees Augusta University and the state’s only public medical college.
In the deal, Wellstar has agreed to invest more than $200 million over 10 years in the university’s flagship hospital, Augusta University Medical Center. In return, Wellstar gains access to a valuable stream of scarce healthcare workers in training.
The other big win for Wellstar is the right to build and run a new hospital and medical buildings in neighboring Columbia County, a potentially lucrative new project that the university fought in court to win. Wellstar will put about $395 million towards that, according to testimony on the deal.
The financial boost comes at a key time for the university hospital system, which has an outstanding debt of roughly $234 million.
Saunders pledged to use her system’s north Georgia hospitals to expand the number of clinicians the university can train. Perdue painted a picture focused on expanded telehealth delivered by those growing numbers of Wellstar-trained health care workers from the university that could benefit patients across the state, if broadband access is adequately built out.
The deal comes almost one year to the day after Wellstar stunned Atlanta by confirming it would shut down Atlanta Medical Center in downtown, a money-losing hospital and level 1 trauma center that Wellstar acquired in a package deal in 2015. Wellstar had earlier closed a second AMC hospital, in East Point, also citing financial losses there.
Similar to AMC, the Augusta hospital serves many indigent patients and reported a $64.6 million operating loss in 2022.
In spite of any similarities, local officials said they trust Wellstar not to close the Augusta hospital’s core services like its 24/7 emergency room. The contract with Wellstar includes guarantees that would last for the first 10 years of the deal.
“Of course there are concerns. But those those concerns are being addressed” in assurances by the officials involved, said Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson.
“So we’re really excited about it,” Johnson said. “And we hold true to the word of the leadership at WellStar, Augusta University Medical Center, the Board of Regents, the state of Georgia that the (Augusta) hospital will remain a vital part of the inner city, which it has been for generations.”
State Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta, agreed. “I’m at peace with it,” he said.
Perdue agreed the Augusta hospital’s core services would not close after 10 years. “We have no anticipation of that whatsoever,” he said. “If we were not confident that Wellstar is in this for the long haul, we wouldn’t be here today.”
The hospital closures in Atlanta and the new Augusta partnership are “two independent issues,” said Saunders, Wellstar’s CEO. “We see a path forward for sustainability, both in our duty to our community, but also on the financial stability side.”
Credit: Ariel Hart
Credit: Ariel Hart
Wednesday’s celebration comes eight months after the University System and Wellstar first acknowledged publicly that they were negotiating a deal. In late March, the Georgia Board of Regents approved the takeover, and the Georgia attorney general’s office signed off on the plan in July.
The Medical College of Georgia, part of Augusta University, will benefit from Wellstar’s expertise at running hospitals, said university president Brooks Keel. Medical students will be trained on the up-to-date electronic medical records system used by Wellstar, he said. Earlier this year, state lawmakers agreed to spend $105 million on the records system for the medical college.
The medical college plans to launch a campus in Savannah next year. That expansion will allow the school to accept 40 more students a year for a total of 304 students per class. Perdue said the University System wouldn’t have been in the financial position to grow without Wellstar’s partnership.
Wellstar also will form a branch campus at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, providing another clinical site for medical student training, Keel said.
Perdue said he hopes that more opportunities for medical residencies and training in Georgia will mean more doctors will decide to stay in the state and help fill physician shortages.
In nearby Columbia County, County Chairman Doug Duncan said it’s a win-win for everybody.
“The overall deal is bigger than the Columbia County hospital,” Duncan said. “The downtown Medical Center is the only level 1 trauma center (in the Augusta region). And so it has to survive and thrive.”
