The celebration for Piedmont Healthcare’s affiliation with Newton Medical Center continued during the Covington-Newton County Chamber of Commerce’s lunch link Wednesday.

Piedmont’s Chief Medical Officer, Leigh Hamby, M.D. spoke to business leaders gathered at The Center about Piedmont Healthcare System’s organization chart and structure.

Hamby, along with Piedmont Newton CEO Jim Weadick answered questions about the future of Newton County’s hospital. Subjects discussed included were the ambulance service, emergency room and local companies that work with the hospital.

According to Weadick the hospital will continue to operate the ambulance service at least through June 2016. Weadick also said that Piedmont Newton plans to file plans for work on its emergency room in January.  As part of the affiliation agreement, Piedmont agreed to add to the $4 million recently collected in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for the emergency room.

Drawings were made for the proposed emergency room, but have since been deemed outdated. New ones, Weadick said, will need to be done.