ADEL — Southwell Medical in Adel held a ribbon cutting on Jan. 24.

The $52 million facility, formerly known as Cook Medical Center, opened its doors at 260 MJ Taylor Road in Adel in October 2019.

Hospital staff, board members, members of the community and elected officials attended the event and were given tours of the facility.

The hospital facility took a little over a year to build, according to President and CEO of Southwell Christopher Dorman.

“The Adel City Council, the Cook County Commission, Economic Development Authority, Adel Industrial Development Authority and the Economic Development Council have worked tirelessly to see this to fruition,” Dorman said. “To see the community have the pride they do in this facility is really amazing. I just want to say thank you to this community for the partnership they’ve created.”

The new state of the art facility is an example of stemming the tide of rural hospital closings through creative means. Southwell Medical was built through a partnership between Tift Regional Health System/Southwell and the city of Adel.

“This community was facing the same problem that most of the rural communities in small areas like this are facing,” said Jimmy Allen, chairman of the Southwell Board of Directors. “They had a facility here that was out of date and needed to be updates, but we knew we couldn’t afford to update it on our own. So we got with the local authorities and had a partnership where they put up about 20% of the money and we put up 80% of the money.”

Allen said that the project took several years of work to bring every agency on board but that it’s a benefit that will more than pay off.

“We’ve already added 94 jobs,” Allen said. “That’s going to increase the revenue for the community. In the end, it’s going to pay for itself.”

Allen said that the community provided $11 million, Southwell Health System provided $21 million and obtained $20 million from the USDA.

Dorman said that the public sector/private sector partnership that was the foundation of the project is new to the area.

“It wasn’t something that was done in the past,” he said. “This was an opportunity for us to maintain a hospital in this community. Prior to building this new facility we were losing millions of dollars a year on the previous hospital, which led to some decisions to minimize or close some of the services that we had available in the previous facility. The only way we could maintain those services and this facility was by some form of public partnership with the community.”

One of the services that closed was the old emergency room, which distressed many in the community.

Dorman announced that there are plans to build an ER at the new facility, an announcement which was greeted with applause from those attending the ceremony.

“Our plan is to develop an emergency room right here in Adel,” he said. “We are studying the options to determine what’s the best fit, best location, best place. The thing that has probably delayed that a little bit is our growth plans. We know that we need to have the ability to expand this campus and we’re very likely going to have to expand this campus upward instead of horizontally. We have to make sure that wherever we’re going with the emergency room, we have the ability to expand upward on top of that center, as well as any other areas that we build.”

Allen said that the new facility offers services that Cook County residents used to have to travel to obtain, which makes getting medical services easier for older people who might have a hard time traveling.

“We’ve got four operating rooms and we’re bringing in surgeons from Tifton and Valdosta and other areas as well as surgeons here,” Allen said. “We’re doing procedures nearly every day in the week. I had some blood work done here in the lab. My wife’s had a sleep study done here since we opened. We just offer all kinds of medical tests and services to the local community.”

Dorman said that the new hospital will offer perioperative services, which refers to the time just prior to and after surgery, which the old facility wasn’t able to offer.

“At the previous facility we weren’t able to offer perioperative services,” he said. “We didn’t have an OR or a robust endoscopy service. Here we have several operating rooms and procedure rooms, so we’ll afford the community opportunities to stay right here in their hometown to receive the care they they need.”

Dorman said that the facility will also offer advanced diagnostic services, a sleep lab, in-house physical therapy, rehabilitation services and community care services. He said that the facility is one of the first to offer SPECT (single-photon emission computerized tomography), which produces 3-D pictures to show how organs are functioning.

Adel Mayor Buddy Duke said that the new facility is a “tremendous addition” to his community.

“The citizens here are so grateful that Tift Regional has taken steps forward to put this facility here, that they believe in us and believe in what’s going on in Cook County,” Dukes said.

Dukes said that he heard many concerns about not having an emergency room, but since plans were announced to add an ER to the hospital that they’re looking forward to having one.

He said that the economic impact on the area will be unlimited, particularly with 94 new, high paying jobs coming to the area. Allen and Dorman said that they are fielding inquiries from physicians from other areas who are interested in coming to work in Adel.

Dukes also said that while losing a hospital can break a community, Adel is looking to see growth and new industries come to the area because of the hospital.

“We’ve seen other towns and cities literally end up being a ghost town,” he said. “I’m proud to say that this point in time is the best time to have ever lived in Adel and Cook County.”

“Hospitals are facing unprecedented challenges,” Dorman said. “Rural hospitals are closing all across the country. Last year, I think 18 hospitals closed. Ten percent of the hospitals in Georgia, rural hospitals, have closed. I believe there are 70 hospitals at risk for closure here in the state of Georgia. All of that is because it is very difficult to operate hospitals in rural communities.”

Dorman said that rural patients need and deserve access to the same type and quality of care that urban residents have.

“Our goal, and Southwell’s mission, is to provide greater access to care,” he said. “I’ve been a part of a lot of hospital projects. This one has been incredibly special because of this community. I’ve never seen a community coming together like this one has and support a project like this.”