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Bainbridge Memorial Hospital and Manor was recently presented with the 1st Place Quality Award by the Georgia Hospital Association for their community engagement pertaining to the GA Heart Program for Rural Hospitals.

Initiated in 2017 with Senate Bill 258, the GA Heart Tax Credit Program for Rural Hospitals allows taxpayers to fill out an application to have what they normally pay in state income taxes donated to one of 56 qualified rural hospitals. In return for this, those that donate receive a tax credit. Official tallies for last year have not been completed yet, but since the program’s inception, the hospital received $284,050 in 2017, $854,490 in 2018, and $1,618,744 in 2019, for a total of $2,757,284. These donations have been used for various renovations and improvements at the hospital, including an infant security system, a WanderGuard security system for the nursing home, optical surgery equipment, roof repairs, state of the art hospital beds, renovation of Memorial Manor nursing home flooring, and much more.

However, it wasn’t the amount of donations that won Memorial 1st place, nor the things they spent it on. Rather, “We received the award because of the community engagement in our Georgia Heart project,” Lauren Harrell told the Post-Searchlight. The hospital’s engagement has included using social media, direct mail, group presentations and one-on-one conversations, as part of an attempt to help educate the community on the healthcare issues of rural Georgia.

In their project on community engagement with the Heart Program, Memorial states, “Our organizational goal is to provide first class services to our patients.” With the donations received, Memorial Hospital has made major advancements towards that goal.