Meadows Regional Medical Center generated $174,033,625 in revenue for the local and state economy according to a recent report by the Georgia Hospital Association, the state's largest hospital trade association.
The report also found that, during the same time period, Meadows Regional Medical Center provided approximately $9,099,906 in uncompensated care while sustaining more than 1,470 full-time jobs throughout the region.
The report revealed that Meadows Regional Medical Center had direct expenditures of more than $76,176,847. When combined with an economic multiplier developed by the United States Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total economic impact of those expenditures was more than $174,033,625.
The output multiplier considers the "ripple" effect of direct hospital expenditures on other sectors of the economy, such as medical supplies, durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. Economic multipliers are used to model the resulting impact of a change in one industry on the "circular flow" of spending within an economy as a whole.
"This new report shows that, as the state's economy continued its slow rebound from years of economic downturn, Meadows Regional Medical Center maintained an enormous positive impact on our local economy," said Alan Kent, President and CEO of Meadows Regional Medical Center. "We are so appriciative for the region's unwavering support of their local hospital and will continue to work hard to ensure that the residents of this area have access to the best and safest health care services available."
While Meadows Regional Medical Center remains a major component of the area's economic engine, the hospital's leadership, like the rest of the Georgia hospital community, is concerned about a wide array of economic challenges that have made it increasingly difficult to meet the community's health care needs including continued cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments and a fast-growing uninsured population. Presently, 42 percent of all hopitals in Georgia are operating with negative margins.
"We're extremely concerned about the current operating environment for hospitals," said Alan Kent. "We've made a commitment to every citizen in this community to be on call for them 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, our ability to do so is being compromised when a growing number of our patients are either uninsured or severely underinsured."
According to Kent, state lawmakers must work to protect the state's health care system with the same fervor that they do other initiatives like education and public utilities.
"Our local health care system is indispensable," said Alan Kent. "It is not only the primary guardian of health in our community, but it is a major economic engine in this area that is responsible for over 1,000 jobs."
Courtesy of Vidalia Communications
