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| | | Original staff, physicians, volunteers, local mayors and founding doctors join Joe Austin, the hospital’s chief administrator, in cutting the ribbon on its next 25 years. (click for larger version) | |
November 17, 2008
ROSWELL – A quarter of a century ago, a farm stood where North Fulton Regional Hospital is located. Eight doctors got together to bring a community hospital to the then small communities of Roswell, with its 28,000 peole and Alpharetta's 3,000 residents.
Hospital Adminsitrator Joe Austin said the 175-bed hospital cost $15 million to build
The hospital has 24 physicians, 14 staff – and 3 volunteers, Arnelle Adams, Daisy Austin and Meryl Schlossman – who have been there since the beginning in 1983.
It took two years of discussion, legal proceedigns and planning meetings before approval was gained for what was then known as North Fulton Medical Center. Construction began in October 1982 on 38 acres of pasture land once occupied by a barn along a two-lane road.
Recent renovations and expansions inclued the emergency department's 18,000 square feet for 28 patient rooms in 2006; the Women's Center offering Level III Neonatal INtensive Care Unit; the $42 million expansion in September 2007 of a new patient tower, bringing the bed total to 202– and providing an expanded operating room area with surgical suites for neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery and laparoscopic surgery.
"This community wouldn't be what it is without you and this hospital," Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., told the hospital staff, physicians and volunteers.
Don Howard, Synovus regional CEO for the Atlanta market and chairman of the hospital board, said he was in the community when ground was broken and when the hospital opened.
"You don't have a quality community without quality health care," he said.
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