Healthcare in Athens-Oconee: How We Got Here

From Athens Regional’s merger with Piedmont to St. Mary’s joining Trinity Health: the history of hospital and healthcare access in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties, and why the region may be ready for more.

Most people in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties know where they go for care. Fewer know that the ownership behind those hospitals has completely changed, twice, in two different ways, in the last twenty years.

Piedmont / Athens Regional

Athens’ hospital started as Athens General Hospital in 1919 and later became Athens Regional Medical Center, locally governed, and for decades one of the region’s largest employers.

By the mid-2010s, leadership turnover and roughly $200 million in bond debt put the hospital’s board in a tough spot. After reviewing proposals from larger health systems, the board partnered with Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare. The deal closed October 1, 2016: Piedmont took on the debt, invested hundreds of millions in new capital, and renamed it Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center.

• 427 beds, Level II trauma center, Level III NICU
• Regional referral hub for 17 counties across northeast Georgia
• Official health care provider for UGA Athletics

Piedmont Athens Regional, about: https://www.piedmont.org/locations/piedmont-athens/about

St. Mary’s / Trinity Health

St. Mary’s Hospital has been in Athens since 1906, run for most of its history as an independent, Sisters of Mercy-sponsored Catholic hospital. In 2013, it became part of Trinity Health following a national consolidation with Catholic Health East. In 2022, Trinity Health formalized a regional structure called Trinity Health Georgia, Inc., which serves as the parent overseeing St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens, plus sister hospitals in Greensboro and Lavonia.

• Roughly 196 beds at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens
• St. Mary’s Medical Group, part of Trinity Health Georgia, runs primary and specialist care across Clarke, Oconee, Greene and Franklin counties, with satellite offices reaching Walton and Stephens counties
• Dedicated breast health, cardiology (5 locations) and endocrinology programs

Trinity Health Georgia, history: https://www.trinityhealthgeorgia.org/

Regional access

Two hospitals under outside ownership is only part of the picture. Several other systems have quietly built a presence here without owning a hospital at all:

• Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) runs an orthopedics and sports medicine clinic at 1181 Langford Drive in Watkinsville, seeing children, teens and young adults by appointment. CHOA also offers pediatric general-surgery outpatient visits at a location on Hawthorne Avenue in Athens. Procedures themselves are still performed at CHOA’s hospitals in Atlanta; these are outpatient clinic visits, not local surgery.
• Emory Transplant Center at Athens, based in Watkinsville, is an Emory-employed member of the Emory Healthcare Network. It lets kidney and liver transplant patients complete evaluations and post-transplant follow-up visits locally instead of driving to Atlanta for every appointment.
• Athens Heart Center & Specialty Clinics, an independent multispecialty group on Prince Avenue, shows the local market has also drawn independent physician groups, not just branches of Atlanta hospital systems.

None of these represent a full hospital presence. But they’re a sign that both Atlanta-based systems and independent physician groups already see enough demand here to plant a flag.

CHOA Athens-Oconee orthopedics: https://www.choa.org/locations/athens-orthopaedics

CHOA Athens (Hawthorne) general surgery: https://www.choa.org/locations/athens-hawthorne

Emory Transplant Center at Athens: https://www.emoryhealthcare.org/locations/transplant/emory-transplant-center-athens

The current landscape, at a glance

• Piedmont Athens Regional: 427 beds, 17-county referral hub
• St. Mary’s Hospital (Athens): ~196 beds, part of Trinity Health Georgia
• CHOA: outpatient pediatric ortho/sports medicine and general surgery visits, no local surgery
• Emory Transplant Center: local evaluation/follow-up, no local transplant surgery
• Population: Oconee County is up 71% since 2000; Athens-Clarke County is projected to grow another ~12% by 2030

Oconee County population data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oconee_County,_Georgia

Georgia Office of Planning and Budget, 2030 population projections: https://georgialibraries.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/georgia_population_projections_march_2010.pdf

What’s new for health care? What can we see for the future?

As the region’s population continues to grow, its healthcare landscape is evolving. Two of the area’s main hospitals – Piedmont and St. Mary’s – are now part of larger health systems, while independent practices and outpatient facilities have expanded alongside them. The arrival of another hospital system would mark another significant development in this changing regional healthcare market.

We think health care access in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties is about to change again, and we’re telling that story here first. We’re not ready to reveal everything yet. But next time, we will: what’s coming to the area, and who’s behind it.