"50 Years"

Eric Norwoodby Eric Norwood, President and CEO

50 Years

In 1957, one year after I was born, a group of community leaders put their hands and hearts together to create a new institution. 

DeKalb General Hospital opened four years later, sprouting out of a 40-acre berry patch that "was well-known to the community because of its abundant growth of strawberries and blackberries ... The public was invited to help themselves to the delicious fruit free of charge." 

So reads the wonderful history book that was written by two people who have literally invested their lives into the lives of others through our institution.  Wytch Stubbs, MD, former chief medical officer, and Susan Parry, RN, former chief nursing officer, devoted four years of their lives in retirement to chronicle what I have called a "love story" ... because of the selfless service that flows out of the people who animate a community hospital.

Bob Wilson, a long-time board member, chairman of the DeKalb Medical Foundation, and a loved and respected voice in our community, often speaks of the important role institutions play in any community. 

MembersFirst Credit Union Grand Opening

Credit Union

MembersFirst Credit Union at the North Decatur campus has moved into its new office space across from the cafeteria exit. The new floorplan includes teller pods where Credit Union representatives provide full service transactions including dispensing cash and receiving deposits. “The state-of-the-art technology allows us to do this efficiently and safely,” says Ayoka Duncan, Vice President of Marketing, MembersFirst Credit Union. Two offices to the left of the lobby provide additional privacy for opening accounts, closing loans and handling personal account matters.

Office hours are Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Fridays from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. For after-hours convenience, the credit union offers a secure night depository and an ATM. Credit Union ATMs are located on all three campuses.

Among its many services, MembersFirst also offers Youth Accounts for members from birth to 22 years of age. Games, prizes, and savings tips for Savasaurus Club members lead to interest-yielding savings, car loans and scholarship opportunities in the CU Succeed™ program when your child becomes a teenager.

New Cardiac Services at North Decatur

DeKalb Medical has received approval from the Georgia Department of Community Health toconduct Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI), an advanced treatment for patients  experiencing a heart attack. North Decatur now offers emergency and elective cardiacangioplasty and stenting services. “When minutes count, we can now safely restore blood flowto the heart using this minimally invasive procedure,” says President and CEO Eric Norwood.

PCI can also be used as a preventive treatment for patients who are at risk for a heart attack. The new cardiac services at the North Decatur campus will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We thank the dozens of DeKalb Medical employees and physicians for the oversight and integrated leadership they have provided over the past two years to make this top rate service a reality at DeKalb Medical!

DeKalb Medical Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

DeKalb Medical kicked off its 50th Anniversary week on May 2, 2011, with a ceremony honoring employees with 15 or more years of service, including one employee who has worked at DeKalb Medical for 48 years, as well as retirees. More than 300 honorees joined Louise Hinesley, who has worked at DeKalb Medical since 1963, in celebrating the health system’s half century of compassionate health care. Hinesley started out as a part-timer, working on weekends in the Emergency Room. Then, in the 1980s, she decided to leave her “day job” and sign on with DeKalb Medical full time. Currently, Hinesley serves as a unit secretary in the Nursing Administration office.

Chemo Desensitization Work Published in Medical Journal

Congratulations to allergist Dr. George Gottlieb and oncologists Dr. R. Allen Lawhead, Jr., Dr. Rodolfo Bordoni and Dr. Bruce A. Feinberg for an article detailing their work with our Rapid Chemotherapy Desensitization program being published in the October 2010 edition of Community Oncology. Entitled “Successful outpatient desensitization of cancer patients with hypersensitivity reactions to chemotherapy,” the article has already reached an audience of more than 26,000 physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and administrators.

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