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Article Category: Newsroom

Meet new Wellstar MCG Health President Ralph Turner

Published on October 25, 2023

Last updated 11:44 AM October 25, 2023

A friendly image of Ralph

Ralph Turner stepped out the front door of his new apartment in North Augusta and ran into his neighbor, who had a Wellstar MCG Health Medical Center badge.

“I work there too,” he said. “Oh, what do you do there?” she asked.

He held out his badge that read “president,” and she looked up in shock.

“There are so many medical students and Wellstar employees in my complex,” he said. “The hospital is such a large part of the community.”

Turner, who has lived out of a hotel in Augusta until last week, still considers Powder Springs his permanent base. He drives to Augusta on Sunday afternoon and back to Atlanta on Thursday night to spend Friday at Wellstar Paulding Medical Center. Saturday is his rest day to enjoy with his wife of 31 years, Ann.

The new leader started his career in 1986 with the U.S. Army, giving him the chance to live around the world—Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Cavazos, Texas (formerly Fort Hood); Fort Belvoir, Va.; Fort Johnson, La. (formerly Fort Polk); Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Co.; Germany; Alaska; Washington, D.C.; and Seoul, South Korea.

From the start, he knew he wanted to work in healthcare.

“It’s rewarding to help people when they are at their most vulnerable state,” he said. “To me, there is honor in that.”

After graduating from high school in Valdosta, Ga., he joined the Army and took a job repairing hospital equipment. After eight years, he became a warrant officer—a highly respected position for subject matter experts who make up less than 3% of the Army—and began managing clinical engineering departments in hospitals.

At the same time, Turner was taking classes. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1995, going on to earn a master’s in public administration and then a master’s in healthcare administration.

“My mindset is be all you can be,” he said.

The more senior he became, the more departments he managed. His last assignment for the Army was at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he ran support services departments such as property management, environmental services and clinical engineering for facilities. After more than two decades in the Army, he retired in 2008 as a Chief Warrant Officer Four (CW4) and earned an executive position with MedStar Washington Hospital Center as an assistant vice president of facilities and support services.

Turner departed Washington, D.C., for Wisconsin to work at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics and thought he was finished with school after three degrees. But when his oldest son began to talk about going to medical school, his competitive side came out. He returned to school at the University of Wisconsin and earned his doctorate in business administration.

“I thought, ‘He’s not going to be the first one in the family to be called a doctor,'” he said in good humor.

From there, he moved his family to Cleveland, where he joined the Cleveland Clinic for two years. He then transferred to Florida for three years for his role as chief operating officer, overseeing a merger between the Cleveland Clinic and Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach.

Turner’s journey with Wellstar began in May 2022 when he became president of Wellstar Paulding Medical Center in Hiram, Ga. He is now the first president of Wellstar MCG Health in Augusta.

We sat down with Turner last week, and he answered some questions to help the staff and community get to know him and his vision for the future of Wellstar MCG Health.

What’s your day-to-day like right now at Wellstar MCG Health?
Right now, I’m usually at the gym between 5 and 5:30 AM, and then in the office between 7 and 7:30 AM. My day usually ends between 7 and 7:30 PM. If I am not in a meeting, my door is always open. I have an open-door policy. I usually have anywhere from 80 to 100 emails at the end of the day, and I make sure to go through all of them before I leave at night.

What made you want to go into hospital management?
I have always liked helping people, and I knew going into healthcare, you’re doing just that. In high school in Valdosta, we had the South Georgia Medical Center and my plan was to end up there. My father passed when I was 4 so my mother, my grandmother and my godmother raised me. Those three women always told me to treat people the way that I wanted to be treated, and if I got caught not doing that, they always reminded me with a stick, broom or whatever they got their hands on. Needless to say, I quickly learned the Golden Rule and apply that to every area of my life—professional and personal.

What’s the biggest area of improvement you’re working on here?
First, ensuring people are paid fairly. Our Human Resources at the main campus is focused on putting together a comprehensive plan that will start to bring our caregivers to a market-compatible salary. You must make sure you do the right thing for your staff, because that’s the most important resource you have. Second, ensuring that our facility looks like it’s a place of healing. Third, ensuring physicians are supported and strengthening our medical services lines in the market. Smart and efficient growth of our physician staff and service lines lead to market domination, which leads to a stronger training center at our medical school. Fourth, community initiatives—getting out into the community and meeting community leaders to let them know we are here to support them. Fifth, ensuring a good relationship with leadership at Augusta University. And, lastly, protecting our assets. When I say our assets, this includes students in their didactic phase of learning and students in their residency or fellowship. We want to be our students’ first choice when it comes to choosing an employer. We want them to stay with Wellstar, be it here in Augusta or in the Atlanta area. We have a lot of students who come from other universities in and out of the state. My thought is, let’s feed ourselves first and go to outside resources for talent second.

Can you talk more about what improvements you’re planning in regard to facilities?
In our Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia lobby, the only realistic lobby entrance we have, there are a few issues to address. There’s an old water fountain that hasn’t had water in it in 15 years; there’s furniture that was supposed to be antimicrobial and is no longer antimicrobial; there are cracks in the floors near the Chick-fil-A; windows haven’t been washed in eight years; and the bottom is coming off the reception station. It’s not that the team didn’t want to address the issues; it’s that they just didn’t have the capital. Our facility professionals managed a budget of $250,000 to take care of a 2.9-million-gross-square-foot facility. If you have one HVAC go out, there goes all of it. So it’s empowering people. People want to do their job, but they’ve been handcuffed with a budget. I told them, “Just do it.”

What’s the biggest threat to the industry?
A lack of human resources and the cost of healthcare. We have to figure out how to close the gap between the amount that healthcare organizations pay to provide care versus what we get reimbursed for providing the care because we pass a lot of that cost onto the patient.

How is the difficult labor market impacting Wellstar?
Certain hospitals are better than others. I think across our system, our vacancy rate for nurses is about 18%, but at Wellstar Paulding Medical Center, our vacancy rate is about 7.8%. At some of our other hospitals, I think they average anywhere from 18% to 24% vacancy.

What do you anticipate being the biggest challenge of Wellstar partnering with an academic medical center?
Academia focuses on the teaching mission, which may lack the urgency to maximize volumes in our ambulatory clinics, which could lead to low volumes/clinic appointments on a daily basis, in comparison to the amount of staff and available exam rooms. I need to ensure academia understands our mission, “To enhance the health and well-being of every person we serve.” This means we must ensure we are utilizing every opportunity to maximize our ability to see patients by filling schedules and ensuring we have enough support and operational staff to facilitate safe and efficient operations of our inpatient units and ambulatory clinics. We want to earn as much revenue as possible so we can reinvest it back into our organization by providing better salaries, improving our equipment and improving our facilities.

Where is Wellstar MCG Health now and where do you want it to be?
According to U.S. News & World Report, the Medical College of Georgia ranks 79th nationally in the best medical schools for research. I want us to be ranked in the top 50 in five years, and the top 15 in 10 years. I want to make sure that we become the premier medical school not only in the state of Georgia but also in the U.S. I want us to be able to compete with medical schools like Duke and Emory. I want us to be in the top two to three schools in our region.

What are our strengths and weaknesses? I think one of our biggest strengths is our people. Our team members have true care and concern for people. This is demonstrated daily. A weakness would be the time we have to invest to become fully integrated into Wellstar. It’s a weakness because we can’t come out of the starting blocks moving at a fast speed, driving changes immediately. We are looking at three to five years before we are fully integrated into Wellstar. It takes time to implement the new IT programs and systems that will tie us into Wellstar, which will provide us the opportunity to be more nimble and agile in implementing changes.

Is there anything you want the work-family to know? We feel the most important resource we have is our human resources. I want every leader we have to engage with their staff and to understand what they need to do their job because I will ask every leader. As president, it’s my job to make sure our team members come to work in an environment that’s safe, free from coercion and free from harassment. It’s also my job to make sure they have what they need to do their job, so they don’t feel like they’re handicapped. And if anyone ever feels like they don’t have what they need to do their job or that they are being coerced, harassed or feel unsafe, please let me know directly. Remember, I have an open-door policy. Final thought: Always put the patient first. That’s what we’re here for, to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves at a specific moment in time. If our team members are making decisions with the mindset of putting the patient first, I always have their back.

Do you have a quote you live by? Just do it (Nike). Eighty percent solution is better than 100% analysis paralysis at any time. When you have 80% of the solution figured out, go ahead and start moving the needle. Just do it.

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Highlights

Health Equity in Action

The Weekly Check-up Atlanta


When Dr. Earl Stewart thinks about health equity, he thinks about patients who delay care because they can’t take time off work, who are seniors silently battling chronic disease in food deserts and who live in communities hit hard when summer heat bears down on the South.

“Health equity,” he said on  The Weekly Check-Up podcast, “means making sure every person, regardless of ZIP code, income or background, has access to the care they need delivered with dignity.”

Dr. Stewart is the medical director of health equity at Wellstar and an internal medicine physician. He’s at the forefront of building a more just healthcare system rooted in listening, proactive outreach and community-based care. His work is redefining what community health looks like in practice.

Health equity starts with access

One of the biggest misconceptions about health equity is that it’s only about insurance coverage. But that’s just the starting point.

“Access doesn’t mean only having a clinic nearby or having insurance,” Dr. Stewart said. “It means that care is affordable, culturally competent, geographically reachable and provided in a way that meets people where they are.”

In Georgia, especially in urban and rural areas, barriers to healthcare can have many forms: long travel times to the nearest physician, language barriers, gaps in preventive care and social factors like food insecurity and housing instability. Each of these affects whether patients seek care at all and what happens when they do.

That’s why Dr. Stewart is helping lead efforts at Wellstar to address care beyond hospital walls, including thinking outside the traditional healthcare model.

Food as medicine for chronic disease

Health happens everywhere, not just in exam rooms. For example, conditions like diabetes and hypertension, wo diseases that disproportionately affect ethnically minoritized and low-income populations, are directly linked to access, or lack of access, to healthy food options.

Wellstar is working to reduce the health impact of food insecurity and chronic disease across the state through:

  • Fresh food as medicine initiatives
  • Mobile Markets in partnership with Goodr
  • Partnerships with local organizations

“If you don’t have access to healthy foods, your ability to control your blood pressure or manage your blood sugar is already compromised,” Dr. Stewart said.

By addressing food insecurity head-on, Wellstar isn’t only treating illness—we’re preventing it through community investment and education.

Mobile health removes barriers

For patients who can’t easily get to a clinic or pharmacy, Wellstar is bringing the clinic to their neighborhoods. Through mobile health programs, including pop-up clinics and food markets, patients can get screened for high blood pressure, pick up healthy groceries or receive preventive education.

“These programs reflect a shift in strategy—from reactive to proactive and from system-centered to patient-centered care,” Dr. Stewart said. “This is PeopleCare in action.”

“Mobile care gives us the chance to address healthcare access in a tangible way,” he added. “It removes barriers before they become complications.”

Health risks presented by climate

In a season of extreme and dangerous weather events, Dr. Stewart noted the connection between climate and health risks, especially for older adults and low-income populations.

“We see emergency department visits spike when the temperatures rise,” he said. “Older adults, people who work outdoors and people with chronic heart and lung conditions are especially vulnerable. Heat isn’t just a weather issue—it’s a health equity issue.”

For communities with limited cooling, transportation or healthcare providers, rising temperatures create a dangerous, often deadly situation. Dr. Stewart sees climate resilience as part of the activities needed to build health equity, calling for stronger connections among climate data analytics, care strategies and community outreach.

Leading with empathy & listening with intention

Health equity starts with listening. Dr. Stewart grounds his leadership in the belief that every patient story matters and empathy is as important as data to the future of healthcare.

With Wellstar Mobile Markets, social determinants of health screenings and mobile health outreach units, Dr. Stewart, the Wellstar Center for Health Equity team and Wellstar clinicians are working to transform healthcare from the inside out.

“Equity is not just the right thing to do morally,” he said. “It’s how we get better outcomes for everyone.”

Hear the full conversation.

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Highlights

Inspire Implants Introduce Better Sleep Apnea Care

If you have sleep apnea, waking up tired may be your norm. Even if you wear a CPAP every night, you might not get the good night’s rest you need. Thankfully, there’s a different option available.

Positive airway pressure (PAP)—CPAP and BiPAP therapy—is the most common treatment for sleep apnea. It pushes pressurized air through a mask to keep your airway open so you can sleep better. But it doesn’t work well for everyone.

“For years, countless patients who have been intolerant of CPAP or BiPAP therapy have had few options for treatment,” said Dr. Michael Vick, an otolaryngologist with Wellstar. “What we have done in the past has been painful and unpredictable.”

Fortunately, if you don’t respond to PAP therapy, there’s good news. Wellstar is a multidisciplinary Center of Excellence for Inspire Implants—the first with the designation in Georgia and the second in the country. This hypoglossal nerve stimulator can reduce sleep apnea without the bulky mask.

What is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder. It causes you to stop breathing off and on while you’re asleep. It can happen when something blocks your airway (obstructive sleep apnea) or if your brain doesn’t send the right signals to the muscles that control your breathing (central sleep apnea). Either way, your body doesn’t get enough oxygen.

To kickstart your breathing, your body triggers a survival reflex. The jolt wakes you up just enough for you to start breathing again. But it also breaks your sleep cycle, meaning you’re tired the next day. And without proper treatment, you can develop high blood pressure or other heart problems that can be life-threatening.

How is sleep apnea diagnosed?

You may have sleep apnea if you snore, wake up frequently at night or stop breathing when you sleep. An at-home or overnight in-clinic sleep test can diagnose you accurately.

At-home tests use a finger monitor to measure and record your airflow, blood oxygen level, breathing pattern and heart rate. We may suggest an in-clinic test called a polysomnogram if we think you have central sleep apnea. This test uses electrodes placed around your body to evaluate your arm and leg movements, blood oxygen level, brain activity, breathing, and heart and lung activity while you sleep.

Common treatments for sleep apnea

Oral appliances can treat mild sleep apnea, and surgery can address treatment-resistant sleep apnea. But two types of PAP therapy have long been the most common treatments for most people with moderate-to-severe sleep apnea:

  • Continuous PAP (CPAP): A machine delivers constant air pressure through a mask to keep your airway open during sleep.
  • Bilevel PAP (BiPAP): A similar machine uses a mask to deliver higher air pressure when you inhale and lower air pressure when you exhale.

More advanced sleep apnea treatment

PAP therapy is uncomfortable for many people. If it doesn’t work for you, an Inspire Implant can reduce your sleep apnea without the mask. The two-piece implant involves a sensor in your chest and a receiver that wraps around the hypoglossal nerve that controls your tongue.

Our ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialists partner with lung and sleep medicine experts to place the device. They perform a minimally invasive procedure that requires two small incisions. This outpatient surgery requires minimal recovery time.

Once in place, the implant works simply. When turned on at night, the sensor sends a signal to the receiver that gently stiffens your tongue and palate with each breath, so your airway does not become blocked—all without waking you.

According to Dr. Vick, Inspire has been a breakthrough for many patients who cannot tolerate CPAP or BiPAP therapy. While success rates can vary depending on individual health factors such as body mass index (BMI), Inspire generally delivers higher satisfaction, fewer complications and a more comfortable recovery than previous surgical options.

“With Inspire, we have a successful and convenient treatment option with a high patient satisfaction rate. While it is a surgically placed device, there is far less risk of complications and downtime than anything we have previously offered,” he said. “If you cannot tolerate PAP therapy, you should consider Inspire.”

Learn more about Inspire at Wellstar and find an ENT who’s right for you.

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Highlights

Epilepsy Expert Explains Diagnosis and Treatment

The Weekly Check-up Atlanta


Having or witnessing a seizure can be frightening. But clinicians have made remarkable advances in diagnosing the causes and preventing future seizures with medications and surgery.

“Seizures often seem scarier to bystanders than to patients,” said Dr. Thomas Holmes, a Wellstar neurologist. “Most patients don’t even remember them.”

Epilepsy is more common than many realize—about 1 in 26 people will be diagnosed in their lifetime. On WSB’s The Weekly Check-Up, Dr. Holmes explained how epilepsy is diagnosed, why not all seizures mean epilepsy and what treatments are available.

As director of neurodiagnostics at Wellstar, Dr. Holmes helped Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center earn Level 3 Adult Epilepsy Center accreditation, recognizing its advanced care for patients with hard-to-treat seizures.

Diagnosing epilepsy

According to Dr. Holmes, a seizure happens when there's an “abnormal firing of neurons in the brain.” This electrical disturbance can cause a range of symptoms—some more visible than others. A person having a seizure may briefly lose consciousness, and other signs can include:

  • Trouble breathing or temporarily stopping breathing
  • Sudden falls without warning
  • Jerking movements or a sudden loss of muscle control
  • Loss of bladder or bowel control
  • Not responding to sounds or voices for a few moments
  • Staring spells, sometimes with rapid blinking

It’s important to know that not all seizures are caused by epilepsy. Other conditions like stroke, brain injuries, infections or tumors can also trigger them. That’s why gathering details from someone who witnessed the seizure—like a family member—can be helpful for doctors trying to make an accurate diagnosis.

When someone experiences a seizure, the first step is usually brain imaging. An MRI is often ordered to look for structural causes, and an EEG, which records the brain’s electrical activity, can help detect abnormal patterns. In some cases, patients may be asked to wear a portable EEG at home for several days to capture activity that doesn’t happen regularly. Both MRIs and EEGs are safe and painless.

For more advanced monitoring, Wellstar offers inpatient epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs) at Wellstar Kennestone, Wellstar MCG Health and Wellstar North Fulton Medical Centers. These specialized units provide around-the-clock observation and are among the few in Georgia offering this level of epilepsy care.

Medications and surgery for seizures and epilepsy

For most people with epilepsy, medication is the first and most effective treatment option. How long someone needs to stay on medication depends on several factors, including what’s causing the seizures and what clinicians find during ongoing monitoring.

Sometimes a seizure is triggered by a specific event, like a head injury. In those cases, Dr. Holmes explained, long-term medication may not be necessary. But if tests reveal a structural issue in the brain—like an area of damage—it usually means a higher risk of future seizures and longer-term treatment is often recommended.

“You don’t necessarily need to be on medication for life, even if you have epilepsy,” said Dr. Holmes. Patients are regularly monitored, treatment plans are highly personalized and care plans are revisited to ensure the best outcomes possible.

“If someone has been seizure-free for two to three years, has a normal EEG and no visible brain lesion, we’ll often discuss tapering off medication if the patient is open to it,” he said.

Some people may struggle with seizure control despite medication. About 10% of patients don’t respond well to drugs—but there are additional treatments available.

Wellstar’s EMUs can help determine where in the brain seizures are starting. In some cases, surgery to remove a small area of brain tissue can significantly reduce or even stop seizures. According to Dr. Holmes, this approach is successful in nearly 70% of cases.

Other advanced options include laser surgery or a responsive neurostimulation—when a small device is implanted in the brain to detect abnormal activity and deliver a pulse to stop a seizure before it starts.

Looking ahead, Dr. Holmes is optimistic. “There are going to be many options that are not drug-related,” he said. “Less invasive procedures are on the rise, and we’re learning more about the genetic causes of epilepsy—especially in children. Research and clinical trials may even lead us to gene therapies in the near future.”

Epilepsy care is evolving rapidly, and for many patients, that means more control, fewer side effects, and real hope for the future.

Epilepsy and Seizures Program at Wellstar

Our Epilepsy and Seizures Program is one of only a few such programs in Georgia. It provides comprehensive care to help children and adults manage seizures. The program also offers a streamlined pathway to determine if a patient is a candidate for advanced treatments, including minimally invasive surgery and deep brain stimulation.

Wellstar Children's Hospital of Georgia and Wellstar MCG Health in Augusta are Level 4 Comprehensive Epilepsy Centers, the highest designation by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers. Wellstar Kennestone is a Level 3 Adult Epilepsy Center.

Learn more about the Epilepsy and Seizures Program and Wellstar providers.

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