Local, state politicians defend Catoosa County CHI Memorial hospital
Defend Our Hospital Rally held in Fort Oglethorpe to raise community awareness on Parkridge Health appeal
FORT OGLETHORPE, Georgia (WDEF) — Many North Georgia residents are still frustrated over an appeal filed in May by Parkridge Health, which has the potential to delay a proposed CHI Memorial hospital for several years.
The Defend Our Hospital Rally Monday night in Fort Oglethorpe touted the phrase “Patients over Profits” both vocally and on campaign signs, and both local and state politicians advocated for residents to get active in telling Parkridge to stay in Tennessee, not on Battlefield Parkway.
The Certificate of Need necessary to build a new CHI Memorial smart hospital in Ringgold was approved by the Georgia Department of Community Health this past April.
A groundbreaking was also originally scheduled for this summer.
But an appeal filed in May by Parkridge Health — a Tennessee-based health provider, has halted everything.
“When the appeal was actually filed, we as a bunch of citizens came together and formed the Northwest Georgia Hospital Coalition,” said Coalition Chairman Jonathan Connell. “The reason why we formed that is to educate people about the appeal that had been filed by Parkridge.”
The frustration from local residents reached the desk of Georgia Sen. Jeff Mullis, who wants no conflict with Parkridge.
He, like so many in the community, wants the hospital to keep its affairs in Tennessee as CHI Memorial attends to Northwest Georgia.
“Best case scenario would be for Parkridge to drop their appeal and go back to Chattanooga,” Mullis said. “We would be up and running, quicker, and the people of northwest Georgia would be taken care of medically. That’s all we want. We don’t want to hurt any hospital in Chattanooga. We just want them to not hurt us.”
Chuck Harris of Catoosa County and Shannon Whitfield of Walker County also called out Parkridge for interfering in the new hospital’s development.
Harris says Parkridge has two choices — leave and remain “partners” or stay and become “enemies.”
“We’re not here to ask Parkridge to allow us to have a hospital,” Harris said. “We’re here to demand and tell Parkridge we are putting a hospital out here with or without them.”
“Tom Ozburn knows — he told us sitting there in his office, ‘I know I can’t stop that hospital from being built,'” Whitfield said. “But he told us, ‘I know I can delay it for many years.’ That’s their whole strategy and that’s so shallow to me.”
Sen. Mullis says delaying the building of a closer hospital could potentially cost lives, saying that every minute matters in a health crisis.
Governor Brian Kemp was also thanked by numerous speakers, as the state’s department of community health recently released a synopsis of revised rules to amend and update rules and regulations regarding health planning and Certificates of Need.
