EVANS, Ga. - An east Georgia hospital has decided to pursue a proposal to build a $150 million hospital in Columbia County.
The Augusta Chronicle reports that University Hospital's board voted Thursday to move ahead with the effort.
University and Doctors Hospital were shot down earlier this year on similar but competing proposals to build a free-standing Emergency Department in Columbia County, the state's largest county without a hospital.
The Georgia Department of Community Health ruled there were adequate resources in Augusta to serve the county and the proposals failed to demonstrate the need to add more and denied the necessary Certificate of Need.
However, Columbia County officials are looking at exceptions that could still give them the certificate needed to build a hospital.