Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) generates nearly $7.5 billion in local and state economic impact according to a recent report by the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA), the state’s largest hospital trade association.

The report found that, in 2022, NGMC generated $7,475,578,424 in revenue for the local and state economy; provided more than $84 million in charity care; and directly and indirectly sustained nearly 30,000 full-time jobs throughout the region and state. The more than $84 million in total estimated charity care, which provides financial assistance to people who meet certain criteria and cannot afford to pay all or portions of their medical bills, doesn’t include unpaid bills that are written off or the more than $17 million NGMC provided in community outreach such as free screenings and health education.

The report revealed that NGMC had direct expenditures of more than $2.1 billion in 2022. GHA used IMPLAN, a leading provider of sophisticated economic impact modeling, to calculate the total economic impact of those expenditures at nearly $7.5 billion. This output multiplier considers the “ripple” effect of direct hospital expenditures on other sectors of the economy such as medical supplies, durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals – as well as restaurants, computer services and accounting. Economic multipliers are used to model the impact of a change in one industry on the “circular flow” of spending within an economy as a whole.

GHA separately reported the impact of Habersham Medical Center (HMC), which was not part of NGHS in 2022. In 2022, the hospital in Demorest generated more than $202 million in revenue for the local and state economies and sustained more than 1,100 full-time jobs throughout the region and state. The hospital joined NGHS and became NGMC Habersham on July 1, 2023.

“NGHS is proud to be a positive economic force in Northeast Georgia,” said Carol Burrell, president and CEO of NGHS. “We’re dedicated to returning our economic success to the community by investing in new facilities, technologies and treatments – which you can see across the region. It’s equally important to us that we use local contractors as much as possible for our ‘Growing the Greater Good’ projects, because we’re ultimately reinvesting in the overall health of our region when we build new facilities, create new jobs and bring new healthcare options to the community.”

The figures in the GHA study only reflect the economic impact of hospital expenditures and do not include the impact of other services, such as physician offices and long-term care facilities, provided by NGHS.