COVINGTON, Ga. - Together, Piedmont Newton and Piedmont Rockdale Hospitals generated over $223 million in revenue for the local and state economy in 2016, according to a report by the Georgia Hospital Association.

The report also found that, during the same period, Piedmont Newton Hospital provided over $5 million in uncompensated care while sustaining 1,050 full-time jobs throughout the county and state. Piedmont Rockdale Hospital provided over $14 million in uncompensated care with 2,069 full-time jobs sustained at the local and state levels.

“While Piedmont Newton and Piedmont Rockdale Hospitals are well known for their roles in meeting the health care needs of the residents of Newton and Rockdale counties, the hospitals also play an integral role in protecting our area’s economic health,” Eric Bour, MD, chief executive officer of Piedmont Newton Hospital, said. “We are thankful for the community’s partnership with their local hospitals and will continue to work hard to ensure that area residents have access to the highest-quality and safest health care services available.”

The report revealed that Piedmont Newton and Piedmont Rockdale Hospitals had direct expenditures of more than $166 million in 2016. When combined with the economic multiplier developed by the United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, the total economic impact of those expenditures was over $384 million.

This output multiplier considers the “ripple” effect of direct hospital expenditures on other sectors of the economy, such as medical supplies, durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. Economic multipliers are used to model the resulting impact of a change in one industry on the “circular flow” of spending within an economy as a whole.

According to the same economic impact report, including Piedmont Columbus and Piedmont Walton which joined the Piedmont system this year, Piedmont Healthcare generated more than $2 billion in revenue for the local and state economy. In addition to sustaining nearly 30,000 full-time jobs across the state, Piedmont Healthcare provided over $165 million in uncompensated care in 2016. 

For more information, visit piedmont.org.