MUSM, GRHIC select rural hospitals for year 3 of KidsABC program
Aug. 29, 2025
MACON, Ga. — Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM) and its Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center (GRHIC), with continued support from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Children’s), are expanding their statewide rural pediatric health initiative for the third consecutive year. The Kids Alliance for Better Care (KidsABC) now includes 22 rural hospitals across the state.
The newest hospitals selected to join KidsABC in Year 3 include:
- Donalsonville Hospital, Seminole County
- Irwin County Hospital, Irwin County
- Jenkins County Medical Center, Jenkins County
- Liberty Regional Medical Center, Liberty County
- SGMC Health Berrien, Berrien County
- St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital, Greene County
- Stephens County Hospital, Stephens County
- Warm Springs Medical Center, Meriwether County
Launched in February 2023, KidsABC addresses the significant challenges rural hospitals face in delivering pediatric care. Many of these hospitals struggle to retain and treat children in their local emergency departments. KidsABC helps bridge that gap by providing tools, training and support to enhance emergency, mental health and primary care services for children—keeping care close to home.
“It’s exciting to see the impact KidsABC is making in rural communities. It’s inspiring to see the dedication from participating hospitals to enhance the care they already provide to the members of their communities,” said MUSM Dean Jean R. Sumner, M.D., FACP. “Keeping care for kids as close to home as possible is a major goal of the program. Through specialized training and pediatric equipment installations, we’re seeing these hospitals strengthen their ability to deliver high-quality pediatric care in their facilities.”
“It is so exciting to see how much progress has been made in a short amount of time toward improving access to quality pediatric health care for all of Georgia’s kids,” said Donna Hyland, Chief Executive Officer, Children’s. “We are thrilled that these adult hospital systems are working with KidsABC to better support their physicians and local patient families seeking care close to home.”
KidsABC creates a statewide network of rural hospital emergency departments, pediatric and family medicine physicians, regional pediatric hospitals and school systems, working collaboratively to:
- Provide rural hospital emergency department support through pediatric training, clinical guidance and regional network building
- Deliver physician-to-physician telehealth and provider training for pediatricians, advanced practice providers and nurses
- Expand behavioral and mental health services, including virtual counseling for students and school-based mental health assessments and training
Ensuring these gains are sustainable by expanding the rural pediatric workforce is essential to increasing access to primary care and mental health care for children. With this in mind, the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Rural Pediatric Scholarship Program offers 10 annual scholarships to Mercer medical students committed to practicing in rural Georgia. The Children’s Family Therapy Scholarship Program supports students training to provide mental health services in rural communities.
KidsABC will continue its expansion over the next seven years, with the goal of strengthening pediatric care throughout all of rural Georgia.
For More Information:
KidsABC Initiatives: https://den.mercer.edu/school-of-medicine-announces-community-partners-in-rural-pediatric-health-care-initiative/
KidsABC Rural Hospital Emergency Department Collaborative Expansion: https://den.mercer.edu/musm-and-grhic-expand-major-rural-pediatric-health-care-initiative-to-newly-selected-hospitals/
About Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah and Columbus)
Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 60 percent of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80 percent are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened additional four-year M.D. campuses in Savannah in 2008 and in Columbus in 2021, and a clinical campus in Valdosta in 2024. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School’s primary teaching hospitals: Atrium Health Navicent The Medical Center and Piedmont Macon Medical Center in Macon; Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah; Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus; and SGMC Health in Valdosta. The School also offers master’s degrees in preclinical sciences and family therapy and Ph.D.s in biomedical sciences and rural health sciences.
About Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center
In 2018, Georgia lawmakers dedicated special funds to establish a new Rural Health Innovation Center tasked with confronting the complex health care challenges and wellness disparities facing rural communities. Mercer University School of Medicine was awarded the grant funds in 2019 and formally established the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center on its Macon campus. MUSM
boasts a longstanding commitment to serving rural Georgia’s health needs, with a mission to educate physicians dedicated to tackling the health challenges in rural Georgia. The Rural Health Innovation Center serves as a critical resource to rural communities to improve access and effectiveness of health care by offering research, collaboration, and training opportunities.
About Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
As the only freestanding pediatric healthcare system in Georgia, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is the trusted leader in caring for kids. The not-for-profit organization’s mission is to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow through more than 60 pediatric specialties and programs, top healthcare professionals, and leading research and technology. Children’s is one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the country, managing more than one million patient visits annually at three hospitals (Arthur M. Blank, Hughes Spalding and Scottish Rite), Marcus Autism Center, the Center for Advanced Pediatrics, the Zalik Behavioral and Mental Health Center, urgent care centers and neighborhood locations. Consistently ranked among the top children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has impacted the lives of kids in Georgia, across the United States and around the world for more than 100 years thanks to generous support from the community.