Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center signed an agreement to enter into a partnership with Surgery Center of Athens, expanding high-quality surgical services to the Athens-area community.
 
“Piedmont Athens Regional is pleased to announce this partnership with the Surgery Center of Athens, a leader in providing surgical services to our community,” said Michael Burnett, chief executive officer (CEO) of Piedmont Athens Regional. “The Surgery Center of Athens has a long history of providing exceptional care to its patients, and this partnership brings together the different strengths of two local organizations with the same goal of providing high-quality, patient-centered healthcare to our patients.”
 
The Surgery Center of Athens has been a leader in providing surgical treatment since opening its doors in 2012. Designed to provide same-day surgical procedures, the center’s providers focus on safe and high-quality same-day treatment.
 
The center is made up of 15 physician owners, all of whom will be partnering with Piedmont. The agreement will allow Piedmont to expand surgical services to patients and will bring a new group of patients to the Surgery Center’s physicians.
 
Piedmont Athens Regional, a 359-bed acute-care hospital, has been serving its 17-county service area in Athens and northeast Georgia since 1919. Since joining the Piedmont Healthcare system in 2016, Piedmont Athens Regional, which serves as the system’s east clinical hub, has made significant strides in quality and patient safety.
 
The hospital received an “A” grade from The Leapfrog Group’s Fall 2018 Hospital Safety Grade – previously going eight report card periods (a span of four years) without receiving an A – and was the only facility in Georgia named a Top Teaching Hospital by Leapfrog last December.    
 
“Patients who receive surgical treatments at our facility will now benefit from the great coordination of care that this partnership provides,” said Kemberly Mixon, administrator at Surgery Center of Athens. “We look forward to bringing that coordination and to the ability to offer our high-quality services to more patients in the Athens area who need them.”