The Correll Pavilion will specialize in cancer care, orthopedic and rehabilitative care

ATLANTA — Hospital patients in Atlanta now have a new place to receive care. Grady Health System officials, employees and local lawmakers celebrated the grand opening of the building, named after Pete Correll. Correll was the former chair of the Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation. 

He helped save the hospital from financial collapse in the mid-2000s and passed away in 2021. In 2017, Correll envisioned the idea to build a new facility dedicated to cancer care, orthopedic and rehabilitative care. Grady President and CEO John Haupert noted Correll recruited him to Atlanta from Dallas, Texas, and became his mentor. Haupert said the new pavilion, which stands 10 stories and marks the hospital's largest investment in nearly 30 years, will help the hospital better handle the 33,000 patients admitted every year. 

"It gives Grady additional clinic capacity and surgical capacity and cancer center capacity to serve the citizens of Fulton and DeKalb County," Haupert said. "That is a huge boost to addressing health equity and access in those two counties.”

Haupert said at the time the Correll Pavilion was being built, Grady did not know it would have to endure a global pandemic that came with supply chain disruptions and other challenges. Along the way, Wellstar closed two medical facilities, making Grady the only Level One Trauma Center in metro Atlanta for months. Northeast Georgia Medical Center recently received the Level One Trauma Center designation. 

Haupert said funding for the expansion came from public-private partnerships, including half the funding from bonds issued by both Fulton and DeKalb Counties.  

In the wake of the closure of Wellstar AMC and its emergency medical facility in East Point, both within the last year, Fulton County Commission Chair Rob Pitts expressed intentions to hold the health system accountable. Pitts and other local lawmakers filed federal complaints against Wellstar with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, accusing the health system of civil rights violations and challenging its nonprofit status. 

"With the closure of the two Wellstar facilities, central and south Fulton County, we're relying more than ever on Grady Hospital," Pitts said. 

Haupert said at the time, Grady was already dealing with the additional burden of a bed shortage.

"Most days we have patients in the emergency room that have been admitted but are waiting to be assigned a room," Haupert said. 

Haupert said Grady will use revenue from the new pavilion to hire more staff. Grady also plans to use $130 million in Georgia-based American Rescue Plan funds for mobile healthcare efforts in Fulton and DeKalb Counties, plus close to 200 more beds to handle more trauma care patients. 

For patients like Calvin Lawton, this could mean easier access to healthcare, which he said could be hard to come by for the elderly or those without financial means. 

"I just got out of surgery two weeks ago, I’m recovering now, and I’m using this building right here for my orthopedics," Lawton said. "It's important to have access. This expansion is a great asset to Atlanta. It’s a great asset to healthcare and everything. For the people who don’t have transportation, that’s important for the people who can’t get up and out of their beds when they send someone for you and greet you, help you either in or out.”