Bipartisan effort paves way for reviving shuttered hospitals in Georgia

Atlanta Medical Center closed in 2022, creating a hole in the city’s medical infrastructure. This year, lawmakers created an exception in state regulations that could pave the way for a new hospital near the former AMC campus. (Andy Miller/KFF Health News)

At the shuttered Atlanta Medical Center, a “Stronger Together” mural sends a hopeful message near a summer spray of hydrangeas. The campus was mostly quiet on a recent weekend, since AMC closed almost two years ago. A lone security vehicle sat behind a chain-link fence, and pedestrians passed by without even a glance.

In the town of Cuthbert, some 160 miles away, the Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center also remains shut after closing four years ago, another Southern hospital casualty in a region dotted with them. Even a smaller facility replacing the former Cuthbert hospital “would be tremendous for the county,” said Steve Whatley, chair of the Randolph County Hospital Authority.

The two hospitals — one inner-city, the other rural — faced some of the same financial pressures, including not having enough patients with private insurance.