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Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare has fulfilled a promise it made to the Augusta community four years ago when they absorbed University Hospital Health Care into their system. Piedmont’s Augusta Hub on Wednesday distributed $2 million to 44 not-for-profit organizations in Augusta and surrounding communities. As part of the merger in 2021, Piedmont committed to spending $1 billion to improve the facility. It included the promise to provide $2 million a year for ten years to support community organizations. “Last year was the first year that we did that. Thanks to a

The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) is continuing its more than 200-year mission to train doctors, now targeting the need for physicians in rural Georgia. Some of Georgia’s 159 counties in rural areas have no physicians or lack specialties such as pediatricians and OB/GYNs. Of that, 143 counties are designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). Dr. David Hess, Dean of MCG, said those areas are known as health deserts or physician deserts. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates 20 percent of Americans, that’s more than 50 million people,