Friday, May 16, 2025
5/16/2025
Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - For three and a half years, Randolph County and surrounding areas have been without a hospital in the area. Southwest Georgia Regional Hospital in Cuthbert, Georgia closed in December of 2020 due to COVID-19 and other financial challenges. With the help of congressionally directed spending funds, the Randolph County Hospital Authority (“Hospital Authority”) plans to renovate and reopen the existing, but closed, hospital and bring essential services back to Randolph County and the surrounding area. The hospital is owned and managed by the Hospital Authority and will require no footprint change or ground disturbance as it will be renovating an existing building. The hospital will operate within 13,000 SF and be located at 361 Randolph Street, Cuthbert, GA 39840. Reopening the Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center (“Medical Center”), now referred to as Randolph County Hospital, will have the immediate impact of saving lives of the residents within seven Southwest Georgia counties in the most impoverished section of the state. Since the hospital closed in October of 2020, the dire combination of lack of access to emergency care, significant lengthening of ambulance mileage with already insufficient resources, and loss of medical personnel living and working in Randolph County has exacerbated a public health crisis from bad to worse. This hospital has been determined to be one of the five most essential hospitals in Georgia and the residents of these counties were found to rank amongst the lowest on health factors and health outcomes. With support from Miller County Hospital, the Randolph County Hospital Authority will renovate and operate the new Randolph County Hospital. The plan is for the new hospital to open as a Rural Emergency Hospital servicing the greatest needs of the community, a 24-hr emergency room. As a rural emergency hospital, the facility will provide emergency services to include a clinical laboratory, a radiology suite inclusive of a 64 slice CT Scanner, respiratory therapy, pharmacy and other crucial medical services for stabilizing life threatened patients prior to transfer. Miller County Hospital in Colquitt, Georgia, is a model of healthcare success in rural Georgia. They have agreed to lend support in the form of managing the new facility, as well as sharing key medical personnel. We realize that solving regional problems requires regional solutions, and this effort to reestablish a hospital in Cuthbert will serve as a model for rural America. To fund the renovation and equipment needed to reopen the hospital, the Hospital Authority has been awarded $11.8 million in Congressionally Directed Spending. The Hospital Authority has been approved for $5.5 million from HRSA, $2.32 million from THUD and $4 million from Ag Committees. The funding will be used for the renovation and purchasing of equipment.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).