December 28, 2022 – Augusta University Health System has signed a letter of intent with Wellstar Health System to form an innovative new partnership that would expand Augusta University’s educational and research missions and allow Wellstar Health System to create a broader affiliation with the university’s Medical College of Georgia as AUHS joins the Wellstar Health System.
The potential partnership is the culmination of a thoughtful and deliberate process begun in 2019 by AUHS, its governing board and Augusta University to strategically grow MCG while expanding and improving both patient care and Georgians’ access to health care services across the state.
The proposed partnership would innovate clinical care, training and research while adopting a successful model of bringing together community-based health systems and academic medical centers such as MCG and its teaching hospitals. MCG and Augusta University are part of the University System of Georgia (USG), and MCG serves as the only public medical school in the state.
Pending a definitive agreement and regulatory approval, the partnership would focus on three strategic initiatives:
- Expanding digital health offerings to create more convenient access to care and provide more individualized care regardless of location.
- Growing the pipeline of physicians and other health care providers serving Georgia by increasing the number of students who train and conduct research through MCG.
- Developing new treatments, innovative care offerings and scalable care models to optimize the health and well-being of every patient.
While there are aspects of the proposed partnership yet to be determined, the partnership would likely result in significant investments to improve existing healthcare facilities and to expand access to care across the state, including a new hospital and medical office buildings in Columbia County.
Through an expanded affiliation with the university’s Medical College of Georgia, the partnership would address the need to train more physicians and address a growing statewide shortage. With 60 percent of MCG graduates entering a primary care residency, training more physicians in these disciplines would support increased access to frontline care provided by specialists such as family medicine physicians and general pediatricians, especially in underserved areas of the state.
A new teaching campus in Atlanta at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital could also be established under the proposed partnership. As a result, MCG, which already has the ninth-largest freshman medical school class in the nation, would grow to become one of the largest public medical schools in the country.