October 6, 2022 | AppenMedia.com | An Appen Media Group Publication | Ser ving the community since 1976
Impending hospital closure rattles health care landscape By SAM WHITEHEAD and ANDY MILLER Kaiser Health News
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Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival to host 10-year celebration DUNWOODY, Ga. — The Hebrew Order of David has announced the official in-person and live return of the Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival taking place on Oct. 23. The event will run from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at Brook Run Park in Dunwoody. Celebrating its official 10-year anniversary, the festival will host over 20 teams including traveling participants from Florida, Texas and Washington, D.C., to take part in this year’s competition. Organizers expect more than 4,000 barbecue lovers and community supporters to be in attendance. The festival offers events and musical programming for all ages in addition to barbecue
tastings and vendor booths showcasing local Kosher caterers, community organizations, first responders, artisans and more. For the past several years the Cobb County Police Department has entered a team to participate in the festival’s competition. In light of recent events, in which two Cobb County deputies were lost in the line of duty, the festival and its organizers will be making a donation with a portion of the event proceeds to honor their memories and families left behind. “In these tough situations, we must all find ways to support each other,” said Jody Pollack, the executive director for the Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival.
ATLANTA — Like many neighborhoods in cities across the country, Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward is changing. Condo buildings and modern minimalist homes punctuate city blocks of lowincome housing. Many longtime residents of the historic neighborhood where Martin Luther King Jr. was born have been priced out and pushed to other parts of town. Atlanta Medical Center, a 460-bed Level 1 trauma center, will be the next fixture to change. Despite banners proclaiming the hospital’s commitment to the area — “120 Years Caring For Atlanta,” one reads — its nonprofit owner, Wellstar Health System, recently announced plwans to close the hospital’s doors on Nov. 1. Georgia has seen several rural hospitals shutter in the past decade, but this year Atlanta has joined other urban centers with facility closures, including a previous downsizing at a facility in the nearby city of East Point. The Wellstar announcement has stoked the political debate over Medicaid
Perimeter Center vision to be open house topic ► PAGE 3
expansion ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections. Like 11 other states, Georgia has not expanded eligibility rules for its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, and hospital officials across the state say inaction has hurt their bottom lines because they still treat high numbers of uninsured patients, many of whom cannot pay for treatment. The Wellstar announcement shocked city officials, including Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, as well as other members of the community. On a recent weekday morning, Teresa Smith, 60, who lives in the neighborhood, said she frequently receives care there for a chronic digestive issue. “This hospital will be missed by the whole community,” she said. Liliana Bakhtiari, the Atlanta City Council member whose district includes the hospital, was sharp in her assessment. “There will be loss of life and critical injuries that will not be taken care of, and I wish that mattered more to Wellstar,” she said. Wellstar declined KHN’s request for an interview about the closure.
See WELLSTAR, Page 4