CHI Memorial is investing more than $100 million to significantly upgrade and modernize its health care offerings in North Georgia by building a new expansion hospital in Catoosa County along Battlefield Parkway between Ringgold and Fort Oglethorpe.
Memorial’s new hospital, to be announced Tuesday, will replace the health system’s current North Georgia hospital just over five miles away in Fort Oglethorpe at the site of what was once Hutcheson Medical Center, which Memorial took over in fall 2017.
The project represents a fresh start and culmination of a long recovery and recent revitalization for North Georgia’s health care market after decades of instability.
“Since I got into office, one of the things I’ve always wanted us to bring back was good quality health care, a good hospital to the community,” said Steven Henry, chairman of the Catoosa County Board of Commissioners. “I’ve been here all my life, so I was born in the old county hospital. We’ve always been very blessed to have a good hospital right here locally, and to not have that in the last few years it’s been, to me, really challenging.”
Even though the old hospital is doing better since Memorial purchased the operating rights, Henry said that it’s located too far away from where most people live and work. It’s also been difficult to overcome the poor perception left behind by failed leadership in the past, he said.