May 19-20
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| 01-20-2008 Chestatee Regional Hospital |
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Contact: Christine Wilbanks
Press Release “This new report shows Chestatee Regional Hospital has an enormous, positive impact on our local economy which makes us very proud,” said Alan E. George, CEO of Chestatee Regional Hospital. “We thank Lumpkin County’s unwavering support through the years and will continue to work hard to ensure that the citizens of this community have access to health care services that are second to none in quality and affordability.” While Chestatee Regional Hospital remains a major component of the area’s economic engine, the hospital leadership, like the rest of the Georgia’s hospital community, is concerned about a wide array of economic challenges that have made it increasingly difficult to meet the community’s health care needs including continued cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments and a fast- growing uninsured population. Presently, more than a third of all hospitals in Georgia are operating with negative margins. “We’re extremely concerned with the current operating environment for hospitals,” said George. “We’ve made a commitment to every citizen of this community to be on call for them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But our ability to do so is being compromised when, in many cases, we’re being paid less than what it actually costs to treat a patient.” According to George, state lawmakers must work to protect the state’s health care system with the same fervor that they do other initiatives like education and public utilities. “Our local health care system is indispensable,” says George. “It is the primary guardian of health in our community and is the key building block for everything else in our community including education and economic vitality. It is our hope that our elected lawmakers will do what is necessary to protect our local health care system and to preserve access to health care for every resident of Lumpkin County.
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