St. Francis Hospital’s Susan Epley, MD, was awarded the prestigious Georgia Hospital Heroes Physician Hero Award at the Georgia Hospital Association’s (GHA) Annual Meeting November  13. Dr. Epley, who was one of only 10 individuals statewide to receive the award, was recognized for her work with pregnant women in the community.

Dr. Epley, a gynecologist and obstetrician, had a long-standing desire to reach out and serve the most vulnerable people of her community and the surrounding area—pregnant women unable to access obstetrical services. During her more than 30 years of practicing medicine, Dr. Epley had seen many women without prenatal care coming to area emergency rooms to deliver their babies. Many of these babies had low birth weights and other problems that could have been prevented with quality prenatal care, and Dr. Epley wanted to change the situation.

Dr. Epley shared her vision for a women’s center offering exceptional clinical care to indigent women with St. Francis President and CEO Robert Granger. Robert and the hospital’s board of trustees embraced her vision. Under Dr. Epley’s leadership, a Women’s Advisory Board was formed, and resources were allocated to create the Trinity Center for Women.

On December 1, 2009, the Trinity Center opened. Dr. Epley and fellow OB/GYN physicians rotated through the center and, along with three nurse-midwives, offered exceptional clinical care and support to the women who came through the doors. Thanks to Dr. Epley, clients coming to Trinity have access to multiple services, including labs, ultrasounds and NSTs. Trinity’s staff addresses chronic and infectious diseases as well as offering perinatal and prenatal care. Within the first year, the center was operating at full capacity. Since it opened, the center has helped countless women, even saving lives, like a woman who had stage four cervical cancer who had not had a pap smear for years until Trinity opened.

Since Trinity opened in December 2009, the center has served 5,365 patients. Among the babies the Trinity staff has delivered, the infant mortality rate has been .15 percent. Eighty-two percent of these babies were healthy; those less healthy the result of women coming to Trinity late in their pregnancies, having had no prenatal care and/or eating a poor diet.

“Thanks to Dr. Epley’s vision and unwavering compassion, women who otherwise would not have access to medical care now have a place to go,” said GHA President Earl V. Rogers. “She is a most-deserving recipient of this award.”