The Office of the Attorney General of Georgia has approved the merger between Augusta University Health System and Marietta-based hospital chain Wellstar Health System, a deal first announced in December.
The deal is expected to close this summer, after which the health system will be known as Wellstar MCG Health, according to a joint statement.
“We look forward to combining the best of community healthcare and academic medicine to improve quality and safety while driving world-class care advances where Georgians need them most,” the announcement said.
Previously, at the end of June, the attorney general’s office hosted a hearing at AU Medical Center in downtown Augusta. The hearing included nearly three hours of testimony about the deal, as well as 90 minutes of public comment, with most AU medical professionals and local officials praising the deal.
As part of the merger, Wellstar will invest nearly $800 million over a decade in AUHS facilities and infrastructure. The partnership also includes the new 100-bed hospital coming to Columbia County, which is expected to open in 2025 and will be the first hospital for the county.
Wellstar, founded in 1993, runs nine hospitals in Atlanta. But last year, it closed two hospitals that served majority-Black populations in the city, saying it was due to financial operating losses. One of them was the 460-bed Atlanta Medical Center, which Wellstar had operated since 2016 and had one of the few Level 1 trauma centers in the state.
AU Health includes the 478-bed Augusta University Medical Center, the 154-bed Children’s Hospital of Georgia, outpatient practice sites and a critical care center.
During the hearing in June, Brooks Keel, AU president, CEO and chair of the AU Health board of directors and acting CEO of AU Health System, said that the health system needed this deal as its financial situation was not healthy due to the increased cost of labor, as well as flat or declining reimbursements.
He said AU Health has been looking for the right private partner since 2014.
“The board is confident in the conclusion that we reached, and confident that the proposed transaction is good for the community, the state of Georgia and the AU Health System,” Keel said.
