Grady Health confirms new emergency room approved for construction in south Fulton County

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — After announcing plans to open a new emergency department in south Fulton County in April, Grady Health confirmed to Channel 2 Action News that the state had officially approved the plan.

According to a Grady spokesperson, the freestanding emergency department will be built in Union City just south of Interstate 20 and will be open 24/7.

“We are pleased that our certificate of need to build a freestanding emergency department in south Fulton County has been approved. This freestanding emergency department, built in partnership with Fulton County, will be located in Union City and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Grady said in a statement shared with Channel 2 Action News.

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The hospital system said the new emergency department should open in fall 2026 and will be “fully staffed by board-certified physicians, nurses, and other clinicians, allowing us to serve a community that has seen an increased demand for access to health care.”

Channel 2′s Candace McCowan reported in April that the new emergency department was meant, at least in part, to fill a gap left open after the closure of the Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center in November 2022.

“We knew and have known that there was a healthcare desert in South Fulton County,” Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts said at the time.

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In previous comments, Grady President and CEO John Haupert said the department will “have 16 bays emergency treatment bays, it will be for adults and pediatrics.”

The location is a 40-acre site along South Fulton Parkway and Campbellton Fairburn Road, next to the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center.

“It could be lifesaving. If someone is having chest pain, their loved one brings them there they can be more quickly assessed than if someone had to drive them all the way up to Grady or all the way to Piedmont Hospital South of Fulton County,” said Haupert.

While the department will provide emergency care, Grady officials said it is not going to be a trauma center, and traumatic injury patients will still need to go to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

“There is a huge demand for emergency pediatric services within that service area. Right now if you have a sick child and need to go to an emergency room you have to come up to Hughes Spalding or go all the way up to CHOA,” Haupert said. “We will have stabilization there for mental health as well.”

The overall project is expected to cost $38 million, and Pitts told Channel 2 Action News in April he expected Grady to request $19 million from the county to bring the new emergency department to fruition.

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