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Article Category: Newsroom

Wellstar Reveals What Georgians Want from their Healthcare System... and it's Personal

“More Than Healthcare. PeopleCare.” Underscores Wellstar’s Commitment to Delivering Compassionate, Quality, and Personalized Care to People and Communities across Georgia

Published on February 04, 2020

Last updated 04:35 PM August 10, 2020

New Wellstar logo on purple background.

Wellstar new branding revealed.

The healthcare landscape and the needs of patients and communities, both throughout Georgia and across the country, are ever changing. Wellstar Health System—nationally ranked and locally recognized for its high-quality care, inclusive culture, and exceptional doctors and team members—actively listens to the people in the communities it serves to best understand and respond to what they want, need, and expect from their healthcare provider.

Actively and regularly listening ensures that Wellstar is evolving alongside its patients and communities, providing not only responsive care to emergent needs, but also ongoing, quality, and personalized care at every age and stage of life. Wellstar spent the last 18 months on a renewed listening journey, interviewing more than 8,000 Georgians, including team members, community partners, patients, and consumers, with the objective of informing strategy and taking action to best serve the healthcare needs of the people they serve.

“Enhancing the health and well-being of people requires pausing—and listening—to what consumers and communities tell us they want, need, and expect for their healthcare journey,” said Candice Saunders, FACHE, president and CEO of Wellstar Health System. “Much of what we hear and learn from our ongoing research is exactly what we strive to deliver to every patient, every time: compassionate, quality care. Over the last year and a half, we heard directly from people across the state that they want to feel valued as a unique person and in control of their healthcare decisions—in partnership with their providers. This insight not only validates our approach to patient care, it guided us to take action and renew our commitment to excellence with a personalized and integrated approach that is more than healthcare."

”Combining these research insights with patient feedback, as well as critical regional insights from its 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment with the Georgia Health Policy Center, Wellstar refined its mission, vision, and values and launched a new brand identity. Today, the not-for-profit announced the launch of its new system-wide brand campaign—“More Than Healthcare. PeopleCare.”

“Many people are asking ‘why now?’, and the answer is that our focus over the past few years has been fully integrating our healthcare service offerings across our entire system to ensure that our patients and communities have access to the care they need and deserve across the entire Wellstar footprint,” said Saunders. “Now, we want to make it clear to everyone we serve that being one of the largest and most integrated healthcare systems in Georgia equips us to provide a full spectrum of world-class health services from birth to end of life. This approach also applies to our team members. We are people taking care of people, and we want to ensure that everyone considers Wellstar a place where individuals can advance their careers and feel appreciated.”

Wellstar now has 11 hospitals; 250+ medical office locations; 9 cancer centers; 55 rehabilitation centers; 3 hospice facilities; 1 retirement village; 21 imaging centers; 15 urgent care locations; and 5 health parks. By doubling in size—growing its services, footprint and capabilities—Wellstar has grown its ability to meet the evolving healthcare needs of patients and communities across Georgia.

By taking the time to listen and understand the individual needs of the communities they serve throughout Georgia, Wellstar is recreating the standard for Georgia healthcare by:

  • Providing personalized care that compassionately takes each person’s unique life story into account—never taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
  • Partnering with patients and communities to identify the best solutions for their needs with the highest quality, expert care by top-rated physicians and team members.
  • Providing care that treats the whole person to promote overall health and well-being.
  • Ensuring that each person has choice and control in their healthcare decisions.
  • Leading and collaborating on community programs and services that provide more than healthcare.

Every Age and Stage

“When you’re 39 years old, you never think you’ll be dealing with something like a heart attack,” said Brett Faucett, a husband and father of two, who drove himself to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital after his arm went numb in the shower. Upon arrival, he was rushed to the operating room for a 99-percent blocked artery. A few years later, it happened again, and he was treated at Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center.

“When you’re in a situation like that, your world is flipped upside down. My family has a dad and a husband because of Wellstar—they saved my life,” said Faucett.

The new brand campaign “More Than Healthcare. PeopleCare.” is centered on real Wellstar patient stories that demonstrate the health system’s commitment to providing personal care that takes each person’s unique life story into account across the continuum of his or her personal healthcare journey – from inpatient to outpatient, pediatric to adult, birth to end of life. For more PeopleCare stories, visit wellstar.org/peoplecare.

Wellstar puts patients and communities in the driver’s seat by listening and providing an extensive choice of facilities and a wide breadth of services so that patients have access to all the options they need to make the best, most informed healthcare decisions. Each Wellstar hospital and healthcare facility offers an access point to a compassionate care team and a wide range of service lines that work in concert to provide personalized care for each patient’s needs.

“There’s no better time than the beginning of the year to reflect, refocus, and rebrand so that patients and communities know who we are and what we do,” said Dave Preston, senior vice president of Brand Experience and Communications at Wellstar. “Our new brand campaign, ‘More Than Healthcare. PeopleCare.’ features real-life patient stories that illustrate Wellstar’s commitment to providing high-quality, tailored care that meets their individual needs at every age and stage of life.”


Stronger Together, Growing Together

Wellstar isn’t growing just for growth’s sake. The system has served one out of six Georgians, and patients in 148 out of 159 counties across the state. Wellstar is the only health system in Georgia with a network of Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 trauma centers located in metro Atlanta to serve the most critical patients with a range of emergency care options. Today, Wellstar Kennestone Hospital operates the busiest emergency department in all of Georgia. The new emergency department will open this year, serving as a beacon for access to emergency care for Georgians. The 263,000 square foot building will connect directly to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital and will hold 166 exam rooms. Upon its completion, it will be the second largest emergency department in the nation.

In addition to its new emergency department, the health system recently opened Wellstar Avalon Health Park, the fifth of its kind, giving patients in greater Atlanta easier access to a variety of high-quality, personalized healthcare services available at one convenient location. The Wellstar health park model gives patients access to primary care physicians and specialist appointments, outpatient procedures, urgent care, physical therapy and imaging in a single building.

The health priorities of the communities Wellstar serves are reflected in the 12 service lines that set the strategy of delivering effective, evidence-based care to their patients. All service lines are led by physician and nurse leaders who work with their team members to develop and deliver tailored care plans that tap the expertise of clinicians in an integrated and personalized manner, depending on specific patient needs.

Wellstar has been able to successfully evolve because of its unwavering commitment to listening to its patients. Truly personal, quality care means its patients have choices and access to the right care, at the right place, and at the right time.


More Than Healthcare

Wellstar’s passion for people extends far beyond its system and into the communities it serves. The health system collaborates with more than 450 community partners to bring important initiatives into its service areas across Georgia.

Being a not-for-profit health system enables Wellstar to offer care when and where it matters most. In 2019, Wellstar provided more than $784 million in charity care, unreimbursed care, and community programs. In 2019, the Community Health Needs Assessment Wellstar conducted in partnership with the Georgia Health Policy Center identified six specific care gaps within the community: food insecurity, opioids and behavioral health, women’s health, cancer, suicide and access to primary care. To address and help fill these gaps, Wellstar convened a group of system-wide experts and community partners to provide services, equipment, prevention and wellness programs such as free mammograms, school health programs, hospital chapels, healing gardens, and more. For example, Wellstar partnered with local organizations to provide first books to every baby born in 2020 at Wellstar Kennestone and Wellstar Douglas Hospitals.

“We have been a partner with Wellstar Health System for more than 20 years,” said Dr. Dwight "Ike" Reighard, president/CEO MUST Ministries and senior pastor of Piedmont Church. “From supporting our 41 food pantries through food drives, including MUST in their annual Day of Service to address food inequities, and supporting the various health needs of our clients, to sponsoring programs like the annual Gobble Jog and the MUST annual Giving Gala, Wellstar has been a steadfast partner, helping us to be a beacon of hope and place of refuge for our neighbors in need with compassion and love. This wouldn’t be possible without community support from partners like Wellstar.

”By taking the time to actively listen, Wellstar’s knowledge has grown, its collaborations have grown, and its capacity to provide integrated, quality care where and when its patients need it most has grown. “More Than Healthcare. PeopleCare.” reflects Wellstar’s commitment to always listening and being there for patients in their hour of need and beyond; understanding the underlying factors that may affect their overall health; and creating processes, programs, and initiatives that promote the personalized care and well-being of every person they serve.

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Newsroom

Wellstar Proposes New Acworth Area Hospital To Meet Community Need

To address the growing need for hospital beds in Acworth and the surrounding areas, Wellstar Health System is proposing to build a new 230-bed hospital, filing its Letter of Intent with the Georgia Department of Community Health. A Letter of Intent is the first step in the process to obtain a Certificate of Need for a new hospital.

The new hospital would be located on Cobb Parkway across from the Wellstar Acworth Health Park. Wellstar’s long history of service to this community makes it the ideal partner to continue to meet the area's growing healthcare needs. The project will be supported by Wellstar Health System resources, including Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center and Wellstar Paulding Medical Center, and numerous primary, urgent and specialty care locations, which will further enable the project to provide high-quality care in an integrated, coordinated and efficient manner.

Wellstar will file a detailed Certificate of Need application on or before June 23, 2025, that will include architectural renderings and how the hospital would address the community’s health and wellness needs.

“Wellstar is improving access to care, and this new hospital is the latest in a series of projects that do just that,” said Candice L. Saunders, president and CEO of Wellstar Health System. “The area is growing so much that even when our new tower at Wellstar Kennestone opens next year, the region will need more hospital beds. A new hospital in Acworth would fill a crucial need for the region’s medical care.”

Wellstar is improving access to care for communities across Georgia through more than $1.4 billion in major projects, including:

  • Expanding Wellstar Kennestone with a new 200-plus bed tower for additional specialty care,
  • Expanding Wellstar Paulding with a new 56-bed tower and parking deck to meet growing community need,
  • Adding a new oncology center to Wellstar Spalding Medical Center to help keep cancer care local,
  • Committing to upgrading and expanding facilities in the Augusta area, including building a new 100-bed hospital and medical office building in Columbia County for the largest county in Georgia without its own hospital,
  • Adding primary care, pediatric, urgent care and specialty services in the communities Wellstar serves, and
  • Partnering with the Augusta University Medical College of Georgia Center for Digital Health to provide rural hospitals with access to specialty care.

The new hospital would be part of a Wellstar system that provides more than $1 billion each year in charity and uncompensated care—more than any health system in Georgia. Wellstar is also a leader in medical education through its partnerships with academic institutions, accelerates healthcare technology and innovation, and is recognized by Fortune magazine as one of the 100 Best Places to Work in America.

“Access to healthcare has been expanding throughout Cobb County, but we still have an unmet need for hospital beds in the northern portion of our county,” said Lisa Cupid, chairwoman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners. “Wellstar is deeply committed to our region, and we’re grateful that they recognized this need and are stepping forward with a solution.”

“Acworth’s population grew fivefold in ten years, and we continue to attract people who want to live and work in our area,” said Tommy Allegood, mayor for the City of Acworth. “The City of Acworth has been expanding our critical infrastructure and creating a place where families will want to stay for generations. A hospital would be extremely beneficial to our community, and we appreciate Wellstar’s willingness to meet our need.”

Wellstar is headquartered in Cobb County and is deeply involved in the area, tracing its heritage to 1950 when Kennestone Hospital opened. In keeping with its community roots, Wellstar will establish a community advisory council to honor every voice throughout the Certificate of Need process.

“My patients are from all walks of life, but they share a desire for a hospital that’s closer to home, especially those who have chronic conditions or are elderly,” said Dr. Michaele Brown, a Wellstar primary care doctor in Acworth. “We live in a vibrant, growing area. Our patients’ access to all levels of healthcare should be just as vibrant and that includes a hospital where they can quickly get the level of care they need when they need it.”

“We will involve the community in every step of this process, and make sure this hospital meets the community’s needs for generations to come,” said Saunders.

In addition to providing care for generations of families, Wellstar actively supports community health and well-being through partnerships with nonprofit, civic and business organizations, as well as academic institutions. Through these partnerships, Wellstar serves all of its neighbors’ needs, ranging from access to healthcare to food and housing insecurity to educational support and career development.

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Dr. Nasarachi Onyeuku, a radiation oncologist at Wellstar, standing with one of the two TrueBeam linear accelerators in use for cancer care at Wellstar Cobb Cancer Center

Newsroom

Wellstar Cobb Cancer Center Expands Treatment Services

New radiation technology and refreshed waiting and treatment areas are expanding world-class cancer treatment at Wellstar Cobb Cancer Center.

Cancer care in forward motion

Wellstar Cobb Cancer Center recently installed its second TrueBeam linear accelerator, which treats various cancers, including brain, head and neck, prostate, breast, lung, skin and gastrointestinal tumors. With the linear accelerator, clinicians can adjust the size and shape of beams to a tumor’s shape and spare healthy tissue.

With the second linear accelerator, Wellstar Cobb can offer patients more flexible and convenient scheduling. “An additional linear accelerator can lead to timely treatment starts and shorter wait times,” said Dr. Nasarachi Onyeuku, a radiation oncologist at Wellstar. “It expands our ability to treat more patients with cutting-edge care, continuing our commitment to bringing world-class cancer treatment closer to home.”

In addition to state-of-the-art external beam radiotherapy, TrueBeam delivers precise, high-dose stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) targeting tumors in the body. It also provides stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for brain or spine cancer treatment. Patients will typically receive one to five treatments.

Patient-centered care at Wellstar Cobb

Wellstar Cobb Cancer Center recently renovated its treatment areas, front desk and waiting room, making it more welcoming and comforting for patients and their families. Within the treatment areas, the suite where patients receive high-dose radiation brachytherapy, a targeted treatment that involves placing radioactive material directly into tumors or near them, also underwent renovations.

“The beautifully designed space enhances patient comfort, offering a calm, supportive environment,” Dr. Onyeuku said. “We’re currently treating breast, cervical, uterine and skin cancers, with plans to expand to other cancer types. It’s advanced, efficient care—delivered close to home and with compassion.”

Early detection and support services

Cancer care begins with prevention and early detection. Wellstar Cobb is home to a lung cancer STAT Clinic, where specialists collaborate to diagnose and begin treatment within as little as 14 days. According to research by the Cleveland Clinic, patients can spend up to eight weeks on average visiting different specialists before starting a treatment plan. Earlier treatment can lead to the best possible outcomes.

Patients at Wellstar Cobb receive support at every stage of their treatment. These services include:

  • Emotional support from a social worker
  • Lymphedema therapy for patients with excess fluid and swelling
  • Meal planning with a dietitian
  • Monthly support group
  • Pain management
  • Physical therapy
  • Transportation assistance

“We have a superb team and state-of-the-art treatment here at Wellstar Cobb Cancer Center. And we’re backed by the resources of a nationally recognized health system,” Dr. Onyeuku said. “We are thrilled that our technology enhancements allow us to serve more people with exceptional cancer treatment.”

Learn more about cancer care in Cobb.

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Highlights

5 Strategies to Strengthen Your Mental Health

Mental health is an essential part of whole-person care. Whether you're feeling overwhelmed or want to build resilience, small steps can make a big impact.

At Wellstar, we’re here to support your mental well-being and help you thrive. Our Behavioral Health team offers specialized care close to home, so you can feel your best both physically and mentally.

Here are five expert-backed strategies to help protect your mental health and strengthen your overall wellness.

Pay attention to early signs of stress.

Recognizing stress early is key to managing it effectively. When stress becomes chronic, it can affect both your mental and physical health. Learning to identify warning signs can help you take action before it escalates.

This is true across all areas of life, including the workplace, where job stress can quietly build over time and lead to more serious mental health concerns if left unaddressed.

“Paying attention to feelings of emotional exhaustion and general cynicism is important,” said Dr. Ryan Breshears, a board-certified clinical health psychologist and chief behavioral health officer at Wellstar. “Those are the foundational signs of occupational burnout, which certainly affects our well-being in the workplace, but when unchecked, can also spill over into our personal lives.”

That spillover can show up as irritability, mood changes, social withdrawal or insomnia. “Any of those could point to a problem that warrants intervention,” Dr. Breshears said.

Treat your whole health to support your mental well-being.

Mental and physical health are deeply interconnected—and we shouldn’t treat them in silos. At Wellstar, integrated care is a key part of our approach.

“I think the days of talking about problems that are physical problems versus mental problems are over,” said Dr. Breshears. “We have a body of research now and decades of science that show the interplay between the physical and the emotional.”

He explained that changes in thinking patterns can trigger physiological shifts in heart rate, stress hormone levels and more. Recognizing these mind-body connections can help you take a more proactive approach to your mental health.

“Wellstar is making a concerted effort to deconstruct old ideas about mental health and remove barriers to access,” Dr. Breshears added. “For example, we’re bringing behavioral health into primary care, cardiac care, pediatrics and women’s health. We want to strategically integrate behavioral health services wherever patients are receiving care.”

By treating the whole person and bringing behavioral health into every corner of healthcare, Wellstar is helping people take charge of their well-being in a way that’s compassionate, connected and convenient.

Prioritize recovery.

Stress is inevitable, and recovery is essential. Without it, your mind and body stay in overdrive, increasing your risk for burnout and long-term health issues. Taking time to recover is not a sign of weakness—it’s a strategy for resilience.

“Our bodies are designed to return to baseline, what we call homeostasis, after high-stress periods,” Dr. Breshears said. “Research suggests it's often the failure to prioritize recovery, not the stress itself, that actually contributes to the most lasting problems.”

Dr. Breshears shared a study comparing elite marathon runners to non-elite runners. The surprising finding? Elite runners were better at identifying stress early and adjusting their pace to recover, ultimately helping them perform better.

That same principle can apply to your mental health. If you notice signs of stress—like fatigue, irritability or changes in focus—take time to reset. That might mean getting more sleep, going for a walk, reaching out to a friend or seeking professional support.

Being intentional about recovery helps you maintain balance, build resilience and continue showing up for what matters most.

Nurture relationships and workplace well-being.

Meaningful relationships are a powerful buffer against stress. For many people, the workplace is a central source of community—and a critical place to nurture mental health.

“We’re social creatures,” said Dr. Breshears. "Having environments where people come in and feel good about their day-to-day interactions is really important.”

Dr. Breshears said it starts with employers being committed to understanding the inadvertent threats to their team’s well-being and removing barriers to care.

“First, I think we have to pay attention to the occupational drivers of stress on our employees and commit to resolving those issues,” he explained. “All of the human resources and benefits in the world will fail if we’re not also working upstream to eliminate the root causes. Secondly, we need to establish clear pathways so people can easily access support without all the stumbling blocks and delays they often run into.”

Employers who lead with empathy—and prioritize flexibility, compassion and connection alongside performance—help create cultures where people feel empowered to seek help when needed.

“We have to ensure that we have accessible resources,” Dr. Breshears said. “People bring their personal struggles into the workplace, and take their struggles in the workplace home. The lines have certainly blurred.”

Know when to seek help.

While self-care and support systems can go a long way, there are times when professional help is essential. Mental health conditions are common—and treatable. The sooner you seek help, the better.

This is especially true for men, who often face cultural and emotional barriers when it comes to seeking support.

“Men on average tend to delay help-seeking more than women,” Dr. Breshears said. “And this is especially true when men are suffering. Frankly, it's a mortality issue.” He noted that men are more likely to die by suicide and experience substance abuse disorders, which makes early intervention even more critical.

Dr. Breshears also emphasized the need to remove barriers and promote action: “We have to create environments in which people feel safe to talk about the struggles that they’re having.”

If you’re struggling, don’t wait. Explore Wellstar Behavioral Health services and find the support you need today.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

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