Wellstar Sylvan Grove Hospital

“Powers of the board as per the articles of incorporation, the sole member of the organization is wellstar health system, inc., a georgia nonprofit corporation. As a sole member, wellstar health system, inc. Holds certain powers of election and approval in connection with the governing body of the organization. These powers are presented in detail in the governing documents which the company makes available to the public upon request.”

“Board review of form 990 internal staff prepares the organization's form 990. Before filing the return with the internal revenue service an external accounting firm, pwc us tax llp, reviews and sign-offs on the completed return of each organization. The current year form 990 is then reviewed by the finance committee along with a question-and-answer session. A motion is then made by the finance committee to approve the returns and present to the full board copies of the forms in an electronic (pdf format) version as well as a hard copy prior to filing. The organization's cfo or designee subsequently signs the return for either manual or electronic filing by the appropriate due date.”

“Conflict of interest policy our conflict-of-interest policy requires all covered persons to annually review the policy and then complete, sign and return the conflicts of interest survey and attestation to the compliance office. The policy requires an on-going disclosure obligation in the event a conflict arises during the year. The following is our process to regularly and consistently monitor and enforce the policy: compliance identifies all covered persons who must complete the survey and attestation. Compliance verifies that the survey and attestation is distributed to these persons. Compliance verifies that these persons return a fully completed and signed survey and attestation. Compliance reviews each completed and signed survey and attestation to identify all conflicts listed in the document. All conflicts, potential conflicts and incidences of non-compliance are referred to the chief compliance officer. The cco takes appropriate action to completely resolve all identified conflicts and incidences of non-compliance.”

“Compensation of officers our board of trustees designates a compensation committee made up of outside board members to establish the executive compensation philosophy of the system, and to review and set the compensation annually for the chief executive officer and the salary parameters for all other officers of the company. The committee utilizes the outside consulting firm of sullivan cotter and associates, inc. To provide expert information regarding industry-wide compensation norms. The company philosophy is to match the market on base pay identifying the median. Total cash compensation is generally geared to compensation determined by our consultants to be at the 75th percentile of its peers.”

“Documents made available to the public the organization and its affiliates are subject to the open records law in the organization and its affiliates are subject to the open records law in the state of georgia. Therefore, by law, citizens are permitted to inspect and copy its governing documents, policies and financial statements as may be requested from time to time. Additionally, the organization's form 990 is made readily available on the guidestar website. Periodically, the organization publishes a community benefit report once a year for distribution to the public. In accordance with o.c.g.a section 31-7-22 and the georgia department of community health's rules and regulations for hospital transparency chapter 111-8-41 the applicable documents are posted on the wellstar.org website in the wellstar hospital transparent information section. Under its continuing disclosure agreements for public bonds, outstanding financial and statistical information is posted and reported on emma.msrb.org on a quarterly and annual basis.”

“Officers hours worked the officers devote their time to all of the organizations within wellstar health system that are listed in schedule r, part ii. As such, the total hours worked by the officers across all organizations exceeds 40 hours a week.”

“Compensation all compensation amounts reported on form 990, part vii; part ix, lines 5-7; and schedule j represent compensation provided to individuals that provide services to the organization. Likewise, the number of employees reported on part v, line 2a represents the number of individuals providing services to the organization. All federal employment tax responsibilities for these individuals (including federal employment tax reporting responsibilities) are handled by wellstar health system, inc. (ein 58-1649541).”

“Vision: deliver world-class healthcare to every person, every time. Mission: to enhance the health and well-being of every person we serve. Values: we serve with compassion. We pursue excellence. We honor every voice. Form 990, part iii, line 4a program service accomplishments wellstar health system is a vertically integrated health care delivery system which provides through affiliated business organizations a full spectrum of health services, including wellness programs, physician office visits, outpatient care, inpatient care, and post-acute services such as home health, hospice and long-term nursing care. The system through its affiliated business organizations operates 11 hospitals (kennestone, cobb, paulding medical center, douglas, windy hill, north fulton, spalding, sylvan grove, warm springs, aumc and west georgia), multiple physician offices, primary care centers, outpatient care facilities, a nursing home and other health related services including two inpatient hospice facilities. The system is supported financially by a fundraising organization, wellstar foundation, inc. The service area for the system encompasses parts of the northwestern, central and western sections of the state of georgia - the primary area being in bartow, cherokee, cobb, douglas, paulding, fulton, butts, spalding, richmond, columbia and troup counties. Approximately more than 90% of inpatient discharges and outpatients served are from the aforementioned counties. The wellstar vision is to deliver world class healthcare. Our mission is to create and deliver high quality hospital, physician and other healthcare-related services that improve the health and well-being of the individuals and communities we serve. History in 1993, what was then known as the cobb health system, the kennestone regional health care system, and the douglas general hospital affiliated to form the northwest georgia health system. Paulding memorial medical center affiliated with northwest georgia health system in 1994. In 1994, the northwest georgia health system helped form the promina health system and changed its name to promina northwest health system. In 1998, promina northwest health system changed its name to wellstar health system. Wellstar disassociated from and became totally independent of promina in 1999. In 2016 wellstar acquired atlanta medical center (merged with kennestone hospital on 9-30-22), north fulton hospital, spalding hospital, sylvan grove hospital and west georgia medical center. In 2023, wellstar acquired wellstar mcg health inc. The parent to au medical associates inc, au medical center inc and wellstar mcg health warm springs inc. Wellstar health system is a parent corporation, which provides overall coordination including governing body to its 11 affiliates: - cobb hospital, inc. - douglas hospital, inc. - kennestone hospital, inc. - paulding medical center, inc. - wellstar foundation, inc. - wellstar north fulton hospital, inc. - wellstar spalding regional hospital, inc. - wellstar sylvan grove hospital, inc. - wellstar west georgia health services, inc. - wellstar mcg health medical center - wellstar mcg health warm springs, inc.”

“Wellstar health system is able to offer a full range of healthcare services through its affiliates. The services offered include but are not limited to: - most major inpatient clinical services, - outpatient services, - diagnostic and therapeutic services, - ancillary and support services, - urgent care services, - home health services, - skilled nursing services and - hospice services. The 11 hospital locations are acute care facilities with inpatient, outpatient, and emergency services. The system includes a residential facility on the kennestone hospital campus, called atherton place. Atherton place also houses an assisted living unit as an additional level of care. Paulding medical center is home to a full care nursing home, paulding nursing center and west georgia medical center is also home to two full care nursing homes. Vernon woods retirement community is an assisted living facility. Cobb hospital is home to a home health agency and a residential hospice facility called tranquility for those patients in the end stages of life. Kennestone hospital also opened a residential hospice facility not far from its main campus. The system is complimented with approximately 412 physician practices and several urgent care centers. The system is thus able to provide a complete continuum of care for the community it serves. The following statements of community benefit and program service accomplishments represent system-wide activity for wellstar health system, inc. (the "system") - ein 58-1649541. All affiliated entities of the system except the physician hospital organization (ein 58-2116179) operate as charitable organizations consistent with the requirements of internal revenue code section 501(c)(3) and the "community benefit standard" of irs revenue ruling 69-545. The system maintains records to identify and monitor the level of charity care it provides through its affiliates. These records include the amount of charges foregone for services and supplies furnished under its community financial aid policy. In fiscal year 2024 and 2023, wellstar affiliate hospitals made $204.7 million and $199.8.”

“Services provided system-wide: licensed beds -2,729 adult & pediatric discharges -109,121 newborn discharges -12,929 emergency room visits -524,219 surgeries -65,269 cath lab/pacemakers/ep -17,360 non-ed o/p radiology procedures -47,067 med/surg. Short stay cases -2,387 gi lab procedures -24,206 radiology oncology procedures -545,464 community partnerships and engagement - wellstar is committed to reinvestng in our communities by engaging in partnerships and supporting sponsorship opportunities that align with our mission, vision, and values to improve the health and well-being of all the people and communities we serve to achieve positive community impact. Community based partnerships may include mission aligned partners such as the american heart association, american cancer society, american lung association, georgia alliance for breast cancer, march of dimes; other not-for-profits that further a social cause and provide community benefit such at the atlanta community food bank, must ministries, tommy nobis center; business and civic organizations such as chambers of commerce and rotary, kiwanis clubs; and academic and workforce development partners including local school districts and other secondary education institutions, and partners focused on career exploration and development and creating pipelines for both clinical and non-clincal healthcare careers. Many employees support our community partners through volunteerism or other services/activities such as organizing a collection of goods for donation through wellstar's communitycare program. Wellstar health system's community activities to address georgia's nursing shortage wellstar health system continues to strengthen its community initiatives through academic partnerships to strategically address georgia's nursing shortage. Wellstar is committed to building a stronger clinical workforce to enhance practice ready nurses entering the profession. Wellstar serves as a premiere clinical site supporting schools of nursing cohorts and senior practicum placements. Our academic partnership model aims to support the student nurse experience, faculty experience, educational process, and development/mentoring of our nursing pipeline. To achieve the strategic goals through community engagement, wellstar continues to implement tactics and objectives to attract, recruit, and retain best talent for the nursing clinical workforce. The following partnerships are a few examples of wellstar's strategic focus areas to enhance the clinical workforce. Mercer university partnership: wellstar has continued its clinical affiliation with mercer university's school of nursing and orbis to train and recruit graduates of the accelerated bachelor of science (absn) program. The absn program is designed for individuals holding a non-nursing bachelor of science (bs) degree, enabling them to earn a bachelor of science in nursing (bsn) within 12 months. Wellstar's relationship with mercer as a top tier partner offers benefits to the absn students by prioritizing clinical placement requests in various specialty areas across the health system. Mercer students are also recruited after completion of their initial clinical course to work as an extern through wellstar's nurse extern program. Mercer university has about 300 nurses to graduate each year. Kennesaw state university (ksu) partnership: wellstar has a longstanding affiliation with ksu, located within wellstar's service area. This partnership includes significant contributions such as endowments and grants to support ksu's educational programs. The wellstar school of nursing (wson), established through a transformational gift from the wellstar board of directors, plays a crucial role in preparing nursing students for professional success. Wellstar provides approximately 70% of ksu student clinical experiences and nearly 50% of clinical faculty are wellstar nurses. A $6.2 million grant has been allocated to hire additional faculty and staff by 2025”

“Congregational health network wellstar's congregational health network (chn) serves as a bridge between our healthcare system and faith communities. Coordinated by a full-time registered nurse who specializes in faith community nursing, wellstar's community have care access challenges in large part due to insurance constraints and provider access shortages. According to healthy people 2020, "access to comprehensive, quality health care services is important for promoting and maintaining health, preventing and managing disease, reducing unnecessary disability and premature death, and achieving health equity." wellstar is committed to serving our community's most vulnerable and under-resourced populations. In 2016, wellstar 4-1 care was created to increase access to care and the capacity of partnering community clinics by providing reduced-cost outpatient medical services. Research has shown that when healthcare systems like wellstar partner with community safety-net clinics, the following can occur. . Reduction in emergency department visits . Reduction in avoidable readmissions . Increase in patient satisfaction scores prevent illness by promoting healthy behaviors in people without risk factors (e.g., diet and exercise counseling) . Prevent illness by providing protection to those at risk (e.g., childhood vaccinations) . Identify and treat people with no symptoms, but who have risk factors, before the clinical illness develops (e.g., screening for hypertension or diabetes) the community clinic network has evolved to advance wellstar's ability to support community access to care and social support services. As wellstar's geographical footprint has expanded, wellstar is also committed to forging new partnerships with community clinics (i.e., community safety-net clinics, community health centers and federally qualified health centers) to more collectively achieve optimal outcomes for more medically underserved and uninsured residents. In addition, the community clinic network evolved to include community benefit support of wellstar's graduate medical education (gme) clinics. In alignment with wellstar's financial assistance program (fap), these community-based clinics provide charitable discounted or free care based on socioeconomic factors like a patient's household income, insurance status and/or family size. These clinics help some of wellstar's most under-resourced and vulnerable community members receive medical services like chronic disease management, wellness exams, vaccinations and medication counseling. In partnership with physician leadership, graduate medical education (gme) residents serve patients at the sheffield and kennestone clinics. To support these wellstar gme residents physician serving at gme clinics, structured education has been provided to help residents better understand health disparities, health equity and community health priorities. Through the community clinic network, wellstar will continue to leverage the fact that community-based clinics are long recognized for their ability to effectively improve and expand patient access to medical, dental and mental health services. Community transformation program access to health care impacts an individual's ability to obtain and maintain adequate physical, social and mental health status. Wellstar's chna identified both the need for access to health care and social support as leading health concerns for disparate and underserved communities. During the covid-19 pandemic, underserved communities increasingly experienced health disparities and gaps in support; community-based organizations experienced need for reliable and sustainable solutions for offering virtual care. Wellstar center for health equity's community transformation program provides a scalable solution for improving access to care in partnership with trusted community non-profit organizations. Each year, wellstar funds a cohort of initiatives that leverage technology to produce long-term, su”

“For the past ten years, wellstar has provided breast screening and diagnostic services to individuals who lack access to or are unable to afford these life-saving services within wellstar's service areas. By providing these services at no cost to those in need, we seek to eliminate existing breast cancer disparities and decrease the number of late-stage breast cancer diagnoses by providing access to healthcare within the communities we serve. This program increases the number of regular mammogram screenings and diagnostic services provided, particularly within high-risk communities, enabling wellstar healthcare providers to detect breast cancer at an earlier stage and resulting in better treatment options and improved outcomes for our community members. To identify patients who need access to these services most, we partner with local health departments, community clinics, a congregational nurse network and a robust list of other trusted community organizations. The wellstar physician liaison team and wellstar clinical partners team also works with 3,000+ wellstar medical group physicians and partner physicians throughout our service area to generate referrals to the program. Prostate cancer screening to increase access to screening and education resources in medically underserved communities, wellstar community health partners with wellstar urology, wellstar laboratory outreach services, and faith communities within the wellstar congregational health network to offer free prostate cancer screenings in high-risk zip codes. Success stories have included participants previously in remission for prostate cancer receiving abnormal psa results, leading to further testing and the resumption of treatment. Mobile market program in 2020, wellstar launched a mobile market program to feed more than 700 metro atlanta at-risk families across six georgia counties. In collaboration with goodr, the joint initiative addresses food access for vulnerable communities in wellstar's service areas. The spring-summer mobile market program included seven community-based locations that provided free, fresh and healthy food options monthly to 100 families in need at each location. Through wellstar foundation and vital community funding, goodr provided food and staffing support for this program, registered participants and provided impact reporting each month. Wellstar provided program logistical support, participant incentives and nutrition education. New community partners helped recruit volunteers and set up food distribution sites in key service areas, including cobb, troup, fulton, spalding, paulding, and douglas counties. Since then, the wellstar mobile market program has expanded to include: . The addition of butts county as a priority location, . On-site health education in alignment with health awareness months, and . Availability of a benefits specialist to assist families with enrollment into public food programs. Since inception, the mobile market program has served 16,000 registrants throughout the wellstar footprint. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of registrants indicate delaying or avoiding medical visits to afford food. Food rescue program in georgia, food residuals make up 12% of landfill waste annually. That's nearly 151 pounds of food per georgian every year, a total of 1.6 billion pounds of trash annually in georgia. This amount of food waste also wastes $1.92 billion each year. In partnership with second helpings atlanta and goodr, wellstar launched a food rescue program. Through this program, high-quality and nutritious food from wellstar eateries, include select hospital cafeterias, is picked up and redistributed to non-profit organizations throughout wellstar's service area. By recapturing fresh food that might otherwise be discarded, we reduce food waste while guaranteeing access to fresh produce and healthy meals for emergency food programs and individuals in need. The goal is to become a zero-food waste healthcare system in the next”

“In fy2024 the total uncompensated care, other community benefits and community investments provided by wellstar was over $ 1.3 billion. Commitment to the community breakdown: charity & indigent (uncompensated care costs) - $ 204,783,000 medicaid shortfalls (uncompensated care costs) - $ 59,205,000 medicare shortfalls (uncompensated care costs) - $ 733,422,000 other patients (uncompensated care costs) - $ 262,212,000 total uncompensated care - $1,259,622,000 other community programs (participation in coalitions) - $ 312,000 other community programs (community health education) - $ 458,000 other community programs (health care support) - $ 24,203,000 total other community programs - $ 24,973,000 community investments (funds back into infrastructure) - $ 182,090,000 community investments (allied hlth/medical education) - $ 19,409,000 community investments (operations - staff/software) - $ 2,444,000 total community investments - $ 203,943,000 wellstar continues to participate in the center for medicare and medicaid services (cms) medicare savings program as an accountable care organization (aco). Wellstar's aco is one of the largest acos in georgia and it has 5,626 physicians including 42,328 members. The aco has been recognized as one of the top 100 aco's in the country. The program has been successful through a focus on wellness and the improved management of chronic illnesses and the related coordination of care, to ensure patients, especially chronically ill, get the right care at the right time to maintain their optimal health and avoid the need for high-cost emergency and hospital care. Maintain their optimal health and avoid the need for high-cost emergency and hospital care. Wellstar awards received fy24 . The trauma surgery unit at wellstar kennestone regional medical center received the prestigious academy of medical-surgical nurses (amsn) prism award, an honor that recognizes exceptional nursing practice, leadership and outcomes in hospital medical-surgical units. The award, which stands for "premier recognition in the specialty of med-surg," is the first of its kind, honoring med-surg nursing units in the united states and internationally. It is co-sponsored by the amsn and medical-surgical nursing certification board. The award is given to outstanding acute care/med-surg units or adult/pediatric units classified as med-surg. . Wellstar kennestone and wellstar west georgia medical centers received the georgia oglethorpe award from the sterling council. The sterling council is a public/private not-for-profit corporation supported by the executive office of the governor. The council oversees the governor's sterling award for performance excellence and the georgia oglethorpe award, which is based on the national malcolm baldrige award, with awards being presented annually to high-performing, role-model organizations, both private and public, that demonstrate superior management approaches and role-model results. . Wellstar west georgia medical center and sylvan grove medical center received the sustained excellence award from the florida sterling council. The governor's sterling sustained excellence award is designed to enable sterling award recipients to retain their role model status. This high-level assessment process examines how well an organization has strengthened, improved and innovated winning systems to ensure long-term success and sustainability in a competitive environment. Highly trained examiners review and evaluate the application and clarify and verify the organization's responses through interviews with leaders and performance excellence professionals. . The atlanta business chronicle named wellstar health system as one of the healthiest employers in the extra-large company category, recognizing innovative organizations that have created robust and healthy workplace programs. The atlanta business chronicle's healthiest employer award is based on the analysis of over 60 scored questions with more than 600”

“Audited financial statements wellstar health system, inc wellstar health system, inc., and its controlled affiliates are audited on an annual basis by an outside auditing firm, kpmg, and as part of that audit a consolidated financial statement is issued. The independent auditors report includes the accounts of wellstar and its controlled affiliates including au medical center, inc., au medical associates, inc., cobb hospital, inc., douglas hospital inc., kennestone hospital, inc., paulding medical center, inc., wellstar atlanta medical center, inc., wellstar mcg health, inc., wellstar north fulton hospital, inc., wellstar spalding regional medical center, inc., wellstar sylvan grove hospital, inc., wellstar mcg warm springs, inc., wellstar west georgia medical center, inc., windy hill hospital, wellstar medical group, llc and various other owned entites as listed in schedule r. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in combination.”

“Tax exempt bond reporting for purposes of the form 990 reporting, wellstar health system, inc. (ein 58-1649541) will list all tax-exempt bonds issued since january 1, 2003, on schedule k as it typically allocates the proceeds of the bonds to members of the obligated group (including the hospitals and medicalgroup). Wellstar atlanta medical center, inc. Reports its specific share of the tax-exempt bond liability allocation on form 990, part x, line 25 other liabilities due to whs, inc.”

“Other changes in net assets for the reporting period wellstar sylvan grove hospital had a change in net assets of $(801,435) related to transfers to affiliates as part of the allocation of income statement and balance sheet transactions over the year.”