Through the tremendous support of the community, St. Mary's Good Samaritan Foundation has achieved its goal of raising $3 million for a capital campaign to bring enhanced imaging and cardiovascular services to the greater Greensboro area. 

"The support for our capital campaign has been incredible, allowing us to reach our goal within just two years, despite the pandemic," said Louie Seabolt, chair of St. Mary's Good Samaritan Foundation Board and capital campaign. "I am so grateful and proud of our community for making it possible for St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital to offer services that are extraordinary for a small rural hospital."

Since kicking-off in September 2019, the Expanding Technology, Elevating Care Campaign has been raising funds to purchase a state-of-the-art CT scanner, permanent MRI suite, a dedicated cardiac stress lab, and build a 2,200-square-foot expansion to house them. The new technologies focus on detecting heart and blood vessel problems, including heart attack, stroke and coronary artery disease. Together, these cardiovascular conditions are the leading cause of death in Greene, Putnam, Hancock, Morgan and Taliaferro counties, causing 31 percent of deaths from 2015-2017, more than any other cause.

"St. Mary's has been committed to providing and expanding access to high-quality care in our community since the day we acquired the original hospital," says Good Samaritan Hospital President Tanya Adcock. "We are so grateful to our community for its tremendous support over the years, especially now. The success of this campaign allows us to provide an enhanced range of cardiac, stroke, and imaging services that patients currently have to travel to Athens, Atlanta or Augusta to receive." 

Adcock noted that the expansion is needed to meet increasing patient volumes. "When we opened our new hospital in 2013, we planned for a high rate of growth, but the reality has outpaced our most optimistic expectations," she said. "That's a wonderful problem to have, but it also means it's time for our first expansion so that we can continue to meet the needs of our growing community."

A major part of that growth is in cardiac services. The addition of cardiologist John Layher, MD, of Oconee Heart and Vascular Center full-time to the community has enabled Good Sam to provide inpatient care to more local residents who have cardiac complications. Expanding cardiac diagnostic services at Good Sam will provide Dr. Layher and other area physicians with the vital diagnostic tools they need to serve more patients locally.

Specifically, the campaign raised funds for:

• 640-slice CT system. This state-of-the art system has already replaced our previous 64-slice scanner. The new system creates more detailed images of the inside of the body faster. The system is so fast, it can capture images of the inside of the heart's arteries in a single heartbeat. It's also a more powerful tool for diagnosing stroke and deciding the best treatment option for emergency stroke patients.

• 16-channel MRI system. Good Sam currently uses a mobile, 8-channel MRI that is available only during normal working hours. Being a mobile unit, patients must leave the climate-controlled building to reach it. The new system will create better images faster, will be housed in an addition to the building, and will have a wider "tube" to increase patient comfort. MRI is especially useful for orthopedic, heart, brain, spine and abdominal imaging without the use of ionizing radiation. Another advantage: by owning and staffing the MRI system, Good Sam will have the option to expand service hours as patient volumes continue to grow.

• Cardiac Stress Lab. Currently, Good Sam's cardiac stress lab is housed in the nuclear medicine room, which limits scheduling for both types of procedures. The new lab will provide dedicated space for a treadmill, EKG monitoring system, patient stretcher and workroom, allowing Good Sam to schedule twice as many patients for cardiac stress tests and nuclear medicine studies.

• New construction. To accommodate the MRI system and Cardiac Stress Lab, Good Sam will enclose a breezeway and add new rooms to create a 2,200-square-foot addition to the back of the hospital. A major benefit of this expansion is that patients will be able to access the MRI unit without being exposed to the elements.

Thanks to the generous support of the community, Good Sam was able to acquire the CT imaging system in January 2021. Originally, the campaign aimed to upgrade from the current 64-slice CT scanner to a 320-slice CT system, but after negotiations, Good Samaritan Hospital purchased an even more sophisticated 640-slice CT system instead. Good Sam's new CT scanner is the fastest, most powerful CT system in Northeast Georgia, and one of only a handful in the state of Georgia. 

"Our community has stepped up and made it possible for our local hospital to provide an array of services not often found at rural, critical access hospitals, including one of the most advanced CT systems in the state," Seabolt said. "On behalf of St. Mary's Good Samaritan Foundation and Board, thank you for your generosity during this campaign and for making it possible for Good Sam to continue to provide the essential services we need, right here in our community."