How Aletheia Health Partners helped Washington County Regional Medical Center rebuild stability, grow services, and reclaim its place at the heart of Sandersville, Georgia.
A Hospital on the Brink
When Aletheia Health Partners first arrived in Sandersville, Georgia, Washington County Regional Medical Center (WCRMC) was in a precarious state. The hospital had cycled through 13 chief executives in a short period of time, leaving staff, patients, and the surrounding community with little confidence that meaningful change was possible. Prior management companies had come and gone without making a dent. The hospital authority was openly asking whether the doors could remain open at all.
The instability had ripple effects throughout every department. Contract agency nurses filled more than 95 percent of emergency room shifts — an arrangement that was both enormously expensive and corrosive to continuity of care. The community had taken to calling the facility a “band aid station.” Patients who once felt a sense of ownership over their local hospital had quietly stopped trusting it.
“Three years ago, I stayed awake wondering if the doors of the hospital were going remain open — if we would have a hospital in our community,” said Pam Stewart, CEO, Washington County Regional Medical Center.
That anxiety was well-founded. National watchdog reports had placed WCRMC on lists of rural hospitals at risk of closure for nearly a decade. The question facing the hospital authority was not just whether the hospital could survive, but whether anyone — with the right approach — could actually change the trajectory.
A Different Kind of Partner
Aletheia Health Partners entered with a fundamentally different philosophy. Rather than arriving with a standardized playbook and a mandate to cut costs, the Aletheia team began by listening to elected officials, independent physicians, frontline staff, and to the community itself. What they heard shaped every decision that followed.
The instinct of most management companies, as the hospital’s own CEO noted, was to come in and cut. Aletheia did the opposite. One of the first and most visible moves was to raise wages for nurses. The logic was simple: the hospital was hemorrhaging money on agency staffing. Investing in competitive salaries for permanent employees would reduce reliance on contractors, stabilize teams, and ultimately cost far less.
“We don’t come in and try to change everything about a hospital,” said Kerry Trapnell, CAO, Aletheia Health Partners. “We want to make sure we’re doing it the right way, the ethical way, but most importantly, the way that fits that community.”
That commitment to community fit extended beyond staffing. Aletheia worked with the hospital authority to hire a CEO who had not only professional credentials but deep personal roots in Washington County — someone the community already knew and trusted. The result was immediate: staff morale improved, and the community began re-engaging with its hospital in ways that hadn’t been seen in years.
Tactics That Drove the Turnaround
The operational improvements at WCRMC were the product of several coordinated strategies, each reinforcing the others.
Eliminating contract labor dependency was the cornerstone. With more than 95 percent of ER nursing once filled by agency staff, the hospital faced unpredictable costs and inconsistent care delivery. Aletheia’s wage investment allowed the hospital to recruit and retain its own nurses. Agency utilization dropped dramatically, and with it, one of the largest line items on the expense ledger.
Capital investment followed financial stabilization. For years, hospital staff had discussed the need for new diagnostic equipment and facility upgrades — conversations that never translated into action. Under the Aletheia partnership, long-deferred projects moved forward: a new MRI, upgraded CT capabilities, and a new emergency department are now either complete or underway. Staff who had grown accustomed to hoping for change are now watching it happen.
Equally important was the cultural shift. Aletheia helped reframe the hospital’s identity, not as a second-tier facility that patients left when they could, but as a first-rate community resource capable of stabilizing any patient and connecting them to higher-level care when needed. That reframing required transparency, consistent messaging, and a CEO willing to answer her phone at midnight when a neighbor’s family member was in the emergency room.
The results speak for themselves. The operating room, emergency department, and laboratory have all recorded volume figures they have never seen before. More patients are walking through the doors and more of them are staying.
Building for the Future
The turnaround at Washington County Regional Medical Center is real, but Aletheia and hospital leadership are determined that the work is not finished. This is not about survival. It’s about staffing pipelines, physician succession, and the next generation of services.
“Aletheia has aligned with the hospital, with the community, and with what the community wants,” said Pam. “They want their hospital. They don’t want it to be part of a larger system.”
With several community physicians nearing retirement, the hospital is actively working to recruit replacements from within the county itself. Seven young people from Washington County are currently in medical school or residency, and the hospital is building relationships now to bring them home to practice. A new orthopedic surgeon is now a part of the WCRMC team. A reintroduced Candy Striper program will expose the next generation of young people to the full range of healthcare careers available locally, which strengthens a reliable pipeline for rural healthcare talent within the community’s own youth.
Service expansion is also on the horizon. Hospital leadership has identified labor and delivery restoration, an infusion center for oncology patients, and a wound care clinic as priorities. Surrounding counties — Hancock, Johnson, and Glascock — have no hospitals of their own. WCRMC, with Aletheia’s resources and strategic support, is positioned to extend its reach into those healthcare deserts through urgent care clinics and outreach services.
“Aletheia has resources way beyond Washington County, and I think that’s going to be critical as we look to expand and serve the communities around us,” said Kerry.
The financial turnaround has created room for these ambitions. By reinvesting contract labor savings into people and property, the hospital has broken out of the cost-cutting cycle that cripples so many rural institutions. Growth, rather than contraction, is now the operative strategy.
A Model Worth Replicating
What happened at WCRMC is not a miracle. It is the result of a partnership built on listening, genuine investment in people, and the discipline to play a long game in a community that had been let down too many times before.
Hospital leaders in similarly challenged communities are invited to see it for themselves. Walk the halls. Talk to the staff. The transformation is visible, and the model is transferable.
Watch the full WCRMC Turnaround story on our podcast: https://aletheiahp.com/podcast/