The northeast Georgia region’s first freestanding hospice house is one step closer to becoming a reality as members of the James H. Downey Society, a group of philanthropic physicians across Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS), pledged $100,000 toward the development.
“We are incredibly grateful to each physician in the Downey Society for this gift,” said Pierpont “Pepper” Brown, MD, chairman of the NGHS Foundation Board. “These physicians make a difference every day as they provide life-saving care for their patients, and they get to further that impact by supporting this project which will provide people peaceful care at the end of their lives in a space that feels like home.”
The 16-bed acute and respite facility will be named in honor of donors Chuck and Diane Stephens, who made the first pledge and envisioned the project based on their own experience with a loved one’s care at a hospice house in another state. It will be located off Thompson Bridge Road in Gainesville and will feature a chapel, spaces for families to gather and ample green space to bring nature inside. NGHS is ready to break ground and start development later this summer.
The Downey Society is made up of nearly 450 physician members who donate annually to the NGHS Foundation and collectively vote on funding initiatives that expand on the mission of NGHS – improving the health of our community in all we do – and fit the strategic needs of the health system. Past initiatives supported by the group include supporting COVID-19 relief, the William “Buddy” T. Langston Pediatric Emergency Space in NGMC Gainesville’s Green Tower and providing Good News Clinics – a non-profit that provides free medical and dental care to uninsured, low-income residents of Hall County – with the same electronic medical record system that’s used across NGHS.