> South Georgia Medical Center
South Georgia Medical Center was founded
in the 1950s as Pineview General Hospital.
Valdosta’s municipal hospital was born July
1, 1955, as Pineview General Hospital, replacing a
privately owned facility. Growth through the years
resulted in the addition of beds, expansion of services
and a change of names to South Georgia Medical
Center in 1971.
SGMC, which started with 100 beds in 1955, now
has bed space for 373 patients. Expansion through the
years included adding a heart center, a new patient
tower and taking over three smaller, financially
challenged area hospitals: the former privately owned
Smith-Northview Hospital on Valdosta’s north side
(now SGMC’s walk-in urgent care clinic) and a pair of
community hospitals in Berrien and Lanier counties.
In 2018, the hospital had 2,258 full-time em-
ployees; its total staff, including part-time workers, is
2,600 at all of its campuses, said Johnny Ball, SGMC
assistant administrator for communications and pub-
lic affairs.
The payroll for all those workers is $185 million,
including salary and benefits, he said.
“Twenty-five to 30 percent of an individual’s
compensation may be benefits, which includes vaca-
tion, holidays, insurance, Social Security, sick days
and the like,” Ball said.
In Lowndes County, 5,086 jobs, or 15 percent
of the county’s workforce, were indirectly created by
SGMC, according to a report from the Georgia Hos-
pital Association.
The biggest staffing problem the hospital faces is
finding enough nurses, he said.
“There’s such a demand for nurses you’re con-
stantly recruiting,” he said.
Certain positions in physical and occupational
therapy, as well as some laboratory jobs, can also be
hard to fill, Ball said.
The hospital’s cancer center is “highly special-
ized,” so that SGMC may have to go out of state to
do its hiring, said Grant Byers, the hospital’s chief
financial officer.
The self-funded hospital’s revenues came to $397
million in Fiscal Year 2018, down from $409 million
in FY2017, he said.
In 2017, South Georgia Medical Center in Val-
dosta generated $790,166,384 in revenue for the local
and state economy, SGMC’s website states.
SGMC had direct expenditures of more than
$337,865,645 in 2017, the latest year for which figures
are available, according to the hospital’s website.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce | Trendsetters
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