Leaders from Southeast Georgia Health System, Coastal Community Health and the Glynn County Department of Public Health told a Glynn County town hall meeting that local partnerships are expanding access to emergency, primary and preventive care — but that federal and state funding changes could squeeze that capacity.

Christy Jordan, chief executive officer of Southeast Georgia Health System, said the nonprofit hospital has invested in services she summarized as the community’s “hearts, lungs and brains” — cardiac care with rapid EKG and on-call teams, advanced pulmonary embolism interventions that can remove large clots in a cath lab and a teleneuroradiology-supported stroke pathway. “Our revised mission is to advance the health and well‑being of our community,” Jordan said, describing the system’s role delivering services that reimbursement does not fully cover.

Jordan said the system serves a community of about 85,000 people and recorded about $108,000,000 in uncompensated care in the last fiscal year (year ended April). She described on‑campus patient lodging built with a donor gift (the Nunley House) that provides free or donation‑based rooms for patients and families during cancer treatment or other prolonged stays. Jordan also described a new internal‑medicine residency accredited last year that began with 13 residents and will scale to 39 when fully enrolled, a local workforce strategy intended to keep more physicians practicing in the region.

Coastal Community Health’s chief executive, Dr. Kavanaugh Chandler, described the federally qualified health center’s growth from serving roughly 6,000 patients annually to reporting more than 20,000 patients in the most recent year across its sites. Chandler said the center uses the federal 340B drug‑pricing program to obtain medicines at discounted rates and pass savings to patients; the center opened a small downtown pharmacy three years ago that offers mail and delivery services. “We can assist them in reducing that cost,” Chandler said of patients facing choices between medications and other living expenses.

Dr. George Reddick, Glynn County public health director, reviewed the health department’s threefold mission to prevent disease and injury, promote health and prepare for disasters, and listed services available without turning people away for inability to pay, including STI testing, breast and cervical cancer screening, environmental inspections and hurricane registries. He urged residents to use available resources and to treat HIV testing as a routine, year‑round service: “You can walk into any of our health departments and get an HIV test same day,” Reddick said, noting he oversees an eight‑county Southeast Georgia district.

Panelists discussed stroke prevention and rapid response. Jordan said the Brunswick campus is certified by The Joint Commission as an advanced stroke center and that teleneuroradiology helps determine whether patients need surgical thrombectomy (typically sent to Jacksonville) or medical treatment that can be done locally; the panelists said roughly 20 percent of large‑vessel stroke cases require surgical intervention. Reddick and others emphasized social determinants of health — insurance coverage, diet, smoking and delayed recognition of stroke symptoms — as drivers of the so‑called “stroke belt” seen across parts of the Southeast.

Audience members asked about the effect of pending federal changes to Affordable Care Act subsidies and a separate rural health transformation fund in recently passed legislation. Jordan said the state of Georgia is preparing an application to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for rural health transformation dollars and that CMS will allocate funding to states; individual hospitals and rural providers will later apply for state‑distributed grants. Jordan said the state application was expected in mid‑November and CMS allocation decisions by Dec. 31; she cautioned that reductions in ACA subsidies could increase uninsured or underinsured patients and strain safety‑net revenue.

Other exchanges during the question‑and‑answer session covered the Nunley House’s operations (rooms are provided without mandatory fees), the cessation of dental services at Coastal Community Health because of sustainability concerns, availability of a residency clinic for new patients, outreach for HIV testing and local efforts to reduce maternal mortality. Panelists described local nursing and physician training partnerships — including a $2 million, five‑year grant to expand nursing faculty positions with the College of Coastal Georgia and the hospital’s resident training and nurse‑resident orientation programs — as ways to grow and retain workforce.

The panelists urged residents to spread information about available services and to advocate for policies that expand coverage and access. Jordan and Reddick both emphasized prevention and community education alongside clinical services. The session closed after an extended public Q&A.

Provenance: statements and program descriptions were drawn from remarks by Christy Jordan (CEO, Southeast Georgia Health System), Dr. Kavanaugh Chandler (CEO, Coastal Community Health) and Dr. George Reddick (Glynn County health director) during the publicly livestreamed town‑hall (intro at 06:18; closing at 96:47 in the meeting recording).