COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Piedmont Columbus Regional plans to activate the old Doctors Hospital building into the Chattahoochee Valley’s only freestanding Children’s Hospital.
The announcement was made by Piedmont officials during a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The facility will be named the Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital. Bill Amos and his brothers, John and Paul, built Aflac into an international insurance company.
This nearly $30-million project is made possible thanks to a generous donation from the Bettye and Cecil Cheves family, according to a Piedmont news release. Bill and Olivia Amos were Bettye’s parents.
“The need for quality health care for the children in Columbus and the surrounding counties affects all of us,” said Bettye and Cecil Cheves. “Our family has had several experiences over the years where our children and grandchildren had to go to Atlanta and elsewhere because the medical services they needed were not available in Columbus. We’re pleased to help bring quality and comprehensive health care for children in our community.”
Piedmont Columbus Regional mothballed Doctor’s Hospital in 2015. Three years ago, a portion of the hospital was renovated and opened to treat Covid patients.
Renovations to the existing facility will begin this August and the new 30-bed children’s hospital is slated to open in fall 2024. The construction will also have an inside connector linking Doctors Hospital with the main Piedmont Midtown hospital.
The five-floor Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital will feature a pediatric inpatient unit with several sibling (semi-private) rooms as well as isolation and behavioral safe rooms, a pediatric intensive care unit, and a pediatric intermediate care unit.
Additional spaces inside the facility will be created in future phases as pediatric services are consolidated to deliver a comprehensive facility dedicated to caring for children in our area, according to the news release.
“We are blessed to have extraordinary local pediatricians and pediatric specialists that currently work within our children’s hospital and we are looking forward to growing to address the ongoing needs of our community,” said Piedmont Columbus Regional CEO Scott Hill. “The Bill and Olivia Amos Children’s Hospital will create a destination pediatric healthcare facility for our region and bring multiple specialty programs and clinics under one roof.”