WellStar Paulding Hospital Celebrates 1st Anniversary

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One year ago, the new WellStar Paulding Hospital in Hiram opened. Since then, the hospital has received national recognition and rave reviews from the community.

During its first year, WellStar expected to see 47,000 patients through the Emergency Department. The medical staff saw more than 70,000 patients—in line with the hospital’s five-year growth projection. This year, 30 percent of the patients chose a WellStar hospital for the first time.

“The increased traffic to our Paulding Hospital means that the Paulding community is taking advantage of our expanded services that only the new hospital can provide,” Mark Haney, president of WellStar Paulding Hospital, said in a press release. “We wanted to provide a world-class healthcare experience for all of our community and our world-class staff and facility are able to do that.”

Since opening, Paulding Hospital has expanded services—with a hospitalist physician onsite 24 hours a day, as well as new imaging and radiation systems.

WellStar would not have been able to accomplish so much without the support of the Paulding community and donors to the WellStar Foundation, the hospital.

At a recent donor event to celebrate the first year of the hospital, John Covington, M.D. and his wife Glenda reflected on their 60 years in Paulding County.

“I’m still amazed every time I drive by the hospital,” said Glenda Covington, who worked as an RN at the first Paulding Hospital. “We’ve been around since the original hospital opened. We are proud that we’ve been able to see this new hospital open.”

The Covingtons were the first major donors to the new WellStar Paulding Hospital. When the couple arrived in Paulding County, there were only 13,000 residents. Since then, the physician has seen the area grow and is proud of the level of care offered in Paulding.

“Even if you’re sick, you feel better after walking in here,” said Dr. Covington. “When the original Paulding Hospital opened it was state-of-the-art. Now, we again have an excellent environment to heal our patients.”