Northside Executive Shares Plans for Growth

Northside Duluth COO Jay Dennard encouraged residents to utilize new facilities, treatments offered. 

Medical care in Gwinnett County has gone through many changes – especially in the last decade. It now offers new facilities and new options for different types of treatment.

Jay Dennard, chief operating officer for Northside Hospital Duluth campus, as well as the vice president of physician services for Northside Gwinnett and Duluth, shared information about the hospital systems growth at the Southwest Gwinnett Chamber’s March First Friday Breakfast. 

Healthcare grows with the population

The origins of hospitals in Gwinnett County started with the tragic death of 6-year-old Olin Burnette in 1941. Access to major medical services was two hours away in Atlanta — it took that long to get there before the interstate was completed.

The tragedy convinced county leaders and generous donors that better healthcare options were needed closer to home. They came together and in 1944, the Joan Glancy Hospital — named in honor of a donor’s deceased child — opened on 24 acres in Duluth.

Since then, Gwinnett Medical Center, as it was later renamed, evolved to become one of the best hospitals in the area, said Dennard. It took about six years to bring the deal to fruition, but in August 2019, Gwinnett Medical Center merged with the Northside Hospital System.

“We had struggled out here because of the demographics change, and managed care was moving folks away from the hospital,” said Dennard. “When we announced that we needed a partner, which was not unusual for any hospital system, none of the managed care companies would renegotiate with us. So for four years, we never received any additional revenue off any billing that we had; however, costs continue to climb.”

The county grew and Northside realized it needed to have a presence here, Dennard added. The fact that Gwinnett County was able to obtain an open heart program in 2012 also made the merger more attractive. 

“We were the only system in the country with a population of our size that did not have an open heart program,” said Dennard. 

Northside Hospital was the first non-academic health system recognized in the Southeast by the National Cancer Institute, a center of excellence that made an appealing partner as well. With the deal, Northside Hospital made a commitment of investing $1.4 billion in the community.

“A lot of that is in bricks and mortar,” said Dennard. “But it’s also around expansion of key services with key staff.”

Northside Hospital is building more of the new tower at its Gwinnett campus in a move that will make the Lawrenceville site the largest campus in the Northside Hospital system in 2025. Officials from Northside recently announced that the Georgia Department of Community Health gave them permission to add seven more stories — for a total of 17 — onto the construction that is gearing up for the new inpatient tower being built at the Gwinnett campus. 

“We’re going to be close to 1000 beds at the Lawrenceville campus,” said Dennard. “We’re debating with our friends at Grady if we’ll have the most beds at one physical address within the region.”

Urgent care beyond emergency rooms

Earlier this year, Northside Hospital and Urgent Care Group opened a new Health Choice Urgent Care Center in Duluth, and they plan to open a Lawrenceville location this month.

Health Choice offers convenient, same-day care for patients with immediate medical needs, including X-ray imaging, COVID-19 testing, occupational health and illness and injury care, according to a news release.

With the addition of the Duluth and Lawrenceville centers, the partnership now operates nine Health Choice Urgent Care centers serving the greater Atlanta communities — Braselton, Chamblee, Duluth, Grayson, Hamilton Mill, Lawrenceville, Roswell, Snellville and Sugar Hill — including six centers in Gwinnett County. 

Health Choice Urgent Care Duluth is located at 4215 Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, less than one mile from the Northside Hospital Duluth Emergency Room. Health Choice Urgent Care Lawrenceville is located at 665 Duluth Highway in Lawrenceville. It is in the GMC Health Park, one mile from the Northside Hospital Gwinnett Emergency Room.

“We are looking at continuing to grow, and one of my responsibilities is working with a real estate company to develop not only medical office buildings, but also other sites for the system,” said Dennard.

He hinted that much more is on the horizon — including Peachtree Corners. That’s why recruiting is a crucial part of future growth, he explained.

“We have a huge focus around bringing the brightest and the best to this community to care for all of you. We have a strong partnership across the whole state with the universities …and when it comes to public schools, we want to really strengthen that relationship,” he said. “We want them to stay close to home …in this great community that we have.”

About Northside Gwinnet and Northside Duluth

• 125,000 people seen in the emergency department in Lawrenceville.
• 45,000 people seen in the Duluth emergency department.
• 100 beds in the Lawrenceville emergency department, which is a level two trauma center. 
• $4 million new parking deck is being built in Lawrenceville.