The Medical College of Georgia will take over clinical services at both campuses of the East Central Georgia Regional Hospital in Augusta.
The agreement will bring in new psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses. It will also allow the hospital’s current employees to keep their jobs.
Dr. Peter Buckley is the chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at MCG and will be in charge of East Central Georgia Regional.
"When you get this partnership the two are much stronger than the individual and the person most going to benefit from this are the people of Georgia and Augusta and the patients at that public facility," says Dr. Buckley.
That partnership comes after a 2007 investigation by the Justice Department into incidents of patient neglect and abuse in Georgia’s mental hospitals.
