Atlanta Medical Center Closes After A Century Of Providing Health Care For The Poor
Atlanta Medical Center in the city’s downtown officially closed Tuesday (Nov. 1), ending a century of health care for the poor in the area and leaving city and state officials looking for solutions to continue care for those in need.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Wellstar Health System’s decision to close the facility, which was one of the city’s largest providers of care for the poor, was met with shock. The newspaper initially broke the story of its closure on August 31, which reportedly devastated community members, politicians and even some of AMC’s workers.
Over the subsequent nine weeks, the 460-bed hospital began winding down operations, causing patients and the hospital’s workers to slowly leave. Nearby Grady Memorial Hospital and Mercy Care charity clinics reported jumps in traffic since AMC’s emergency room closed on October 14.
Many in the largely Black community that AMC served were greatly disappointed by the closure because it leaves them with no easy alternatives for care.
New mom Bree Davis told the AJC that she hasn’t used the Atlanta Medical Center’s downtown hospital yet, but intended to if she needed help for her new baby.
“I’m kind of in shock because I didn’t know that they were closing,” she said, adding that having a new pediatrician across from a hospital gave her security. “Just in case if something was to go on, you know, she’s right across the street. So literally, access is right there.”
Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens was frustrated about losing AMC and said in a statement in September that the news came with little warning.
“This decision will have deep and reverberating consequences for the half a million residents of Atlanta and the hundreds of thousands of visitors and commuters to our city each day,” Dickens said. “The City of Atlanta received no advance notice of this decision and had no opportunity to engage with you to understand or help mitigate the factors leading to this closure.
Formerly known as Georgia Baptist Hospital, AMC’s downtown location is the second Wellstar facility that has closed this year. Atlanta Medical Center South, located in East Point, was reduced from a hospital and emergency room to an outpatient clinic earlier this year, according to the AJC.
Wellstar reports that both locations were losing money and served a patient population that included many low-income residents without insurance. That operating loss totaled $114 million in the year ending June 30, 2022.
