Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital has received a $1 million gift from Dan and Kathelen Amos to renovate the 5th floor of the facility formerly named Doctor’s Hospital, which is located on the Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown campus and is not currently in use. As a matching gift to Piedmont, the Piedmont Columbus Regional Foundation is seeking to match the Amos’s gift with funds from the community and, together, enable the hospital to create a dedicated unit of 29 beds and seven (7) ICU beds for patient care.

Over the past three weeks, Piedmont’s leadership teams have been working around the clock to prepare for a safe and effective response to what they anticipate will be a major increase in the number of COVID-19 patients requiring critical care hospitalization. In anticipation of this challenge, the ambitious plan is to create this new space within 10 days. Cohorting, or, in this case, grouping COVID-19 patients together, can “confine their care to one area and prevent contact with other patients,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

“There is a great need to isolate COVID-19 patients to provide specialized care and avoid possible cross contamination with patients being treated for non-COVID-19 ailments. This $1 million donation from Dan and Kathelen Amos enables us to address this need, which will very likely save lives,” said Piedmont Columbus Regional CEO Scott Hill. “As the COVID-19 virus continues to impact areas across the nation, we are extremely grateful to community leaders like the Amos family, who have always been there for the Columbus community.”

“Despite this time of unprecedented need for social distancing, this too is a time of unprecedented need for the community to come together and help one another in any number of ways,” said Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson. “By providing this gift that will enable healthcare professionals to treat more COVID-19 patients in a safer and healthier environment, the Amos family’s personal commitment to our community cannot be overstated.”

“We know that together, our community will get through the COVID-19 crisis and come out of it stronger than ever before. We are blessed with outstanding healthcare providers and hospitals like Piedmont Columbus Regional and are so grateful for every doctor, nurse, first responder and the entire health care community for everything that they are doing to keep people healthy and safe during these very difficult times,” said Kathelen and Dan Amos.