Georgia Neurological Surgery & Comprehensive Spine, a practice offering surgical and non-surgical care of the brain, spine and peripheral nervous system, will join St. Mary’s Medical Group effective March 1, 2019.

Georgia Neurological Surgery & Comprehensive Spine (GNS) provides quality neurosurgical care to patients across Northeast Georgia. The team of experienced, fellowship-trained physicians and other healthcare professionals practice at GNS's main office, 2142 West Broad St., Building 100, Suite 200, Athens, at satellite offices in Greensboro and Monroe, and will soon be consolidating their Demorest, Royston and Toccoa locations into a new Lavonia location to better serve the patients in that region of Northeast Georgia.

"In today's complex healthcare environment, joining St. Mary's Medical Group just makes sense for our practitioners and our patients," said Bryan Barnes, MD, a senior partner in the practice. "Being part of St. Mary's allows our physicians and other practitioners to devote more time to patient care and gives us enhanced access to educational resources, best practices, and administrative functions such as dealing with third-party payers."

"St. Mary's has partnered with the physicians and staff at Georgia Neurological Surgery for decades to deliver state-of-the-art neurosurgical care to our community," said Montez Carter, St. Mary's President and CEO. "We are honored and extremely proud to welcome GNS into the St. Mary's family. We look forward to expanding our partnership. Together, we will continue to enhance access to neurosurgical care across our region for decades to come."

One recent example of that partnership, Carter said, was bringing neurointerventional biplane angiography to Northeast Georgia. One of the advanced capabilities of the system is the removal of the large vessel blood clots that cause many major strokes. Because this capability is now available at St. Mary's, many patients are able to receive life-saving stroke treatment locally, rather than having to be transferred to hospitals in Atlanta or Augusta.

"It took St. Mary's and GNS working together to make this level of care possible," Carter said. "Together, we were able to acquire the technology – which is rarely found outside of major urban referral centers – recruit a highly trained specialist to Athens, and train the support team required to perform procedures such as minimally invasive aneurysm repair and mechanical blood clot extraction."

"St. Mary's Medical Group continues to grow to better meet the health care needs of all the communities we serve," said Brittainy Horne, St. Mary's Vice President of Professional and Physician Services. "The addition of Georgia Neurological Surgery and Comprehensive Spine is a tremendous development in our neurological and surgical continuum of care."

GNS physicians are all board-certified or board-eligible and have completed extensive and specialized training in their respective fields. They are: John Cuff, MD, who co-founded the practice in 1979; Bryan Barnes, MD; Harlan Bruner, MD; and M. Neil Woodall, MD.

In addition to surgical services, the practice offers on-site physical therapy services for non-surgical care of a variety of conditions, especially back and neck pain. Also, a compassionate and highly qualified staff of physician assistants, a nurse practitioner, and registered nurses provide patient care under the supervision of the physicians, including developing initial treatment plans, ordering studies, and following patients' progress.