Blue Ridge, Hospitals, and Medical Community (Atlanta, Gainesville: apartment, homes, employment)

[MtnFlyer]

Greetings everyone,

I apologize if this has been asked before. I was just having trouble finding threads that addressed it all.

I'm trying to help a colleague who wants to relocate into the more mountainous area. He wants a place that is a little cooler, he loves pine trees, log homes, and outdoor living areas. He love snow, but Montana is a bit expensive. Employment isn't an issue as long as he has an internet connection.

The concern is that they're looking to buy a "forever home," and as they age, a 30 minute commute to the hospital can take 20 years off your life. They're spending a lot of time on Zillow, but I suggested asking here to get first hand information.

They're really looking at Blue Ridge. What is the medical community like there? Is there another town up that way that has better hospital care? For tertiary care I'm assuming Chattanooga or Atlanta is required.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by MtnFlyer

Greetings everyone,

I apologize if this has been asked before. I was just having trouble finding threads that addressed it all.

I'm trying to help a colleague who wants to relocate into the more mountainous area. He wants a place that is a little cooler, he loves pine trees, log homes, and outdoor living areas. He love snow, but Montana is a bit expensive. Employment isn't an issue as long as he has an internet connection.

The concern is that they're looking to buy a "forever home," and as they age, a 30 minute commute to the hospital can take 20 years off your life. They're spending a lot of time on Zillow, but I suggested asking here to get first hand information.

They're really looking at Blue Ridge. What is the medical community like there? Is there another town up that way that has better hospital care? For tertiary care I'm assuming Chattanooga or Atlanta is required.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

The Blue Ridge area has Fannin Regional Hospital, which is a 50-bed hospital that is located in a rural area more than 5 miles outside of the city limits of the town of Blue Ridge proper along Old Georgia State Route 5.

Union General Hospital is a 45-bed hospital that is located more than 20 miles to the east of Blue Ridge along Georgia State Route 515/US-76 over in Blairsville.

The North Georgia Mountains region historically has been a sparsely populated remote rural area that has had noticeably limited health and medical care infrastructure.

For more comprehensive medical care, you are right that one would have to travel several miles away to a larger metropolitan area on the edges of the greater North Georgia Mountains region like Chattanooga, Atlanta or Gainesville.

[MtnFlyer]

Born 2 Roll,

Thanks for the insight. It sounds like there is isn't anything to be gained by looking farther to the east. As far as the local hospital goes, it sounds like Blue Ridge is probably about as large as anything else up north. Unfortunately, I often see situations where a patient goes into a local E.R., on perhaps a weekend. The E.R. doc determines that neuro, or G.I. is needed and the outlying hospital doesn't have coverage on the weekend. The doc looks for coverage at the larger campuses only to be told that "X General is closed to transfers." Had the patient gone to "X General" two hours away, they would have been admitted there, but since they're in a facility already, the mother ship can decline the transfer.

Don't get me wrong. I understand why it works that way. It's just an unfortunate reality and a concern as one gets older.

Thank you again for taking the time to reply.

[y8tiger]

For the longest time I wanted to Retire up to Blue Ridge, but as I got older the limited medical care options became more of a detractor.

When all was said and done I chose to settle down in Huntsville, AL which sits at the Southwestern end of the Appalachians.

I often stay in the Mountains between here and Asheville, NC for Vacations.

[MtnFlyer]

Originally Posted by y8tiger

For the longest time I wanted to Retire up to Blue Ridge, but as I got older the limited medical care options became more of a detractor.

When all was said and done I chose to settle down in Huntsville, AL which sits at the Southwestern end of the Appalachians.

I often stay in the Mountains between here and Asheville, NC for Vacations.

y8tiger,

Thank you so much for your post. Coming from someone who has actually lived there, and weighed the same concerns, your insight is invaluable. It's an unfortunate reality that retirement specialists say we should have 15 years worth of living expenses available to retire, and that comes at a time that we have to be so concerned with things like hospitals and medical care.

Thanks again.

[OhioNative]

Originally Posted by y8tiger

For the longest time I wanted to Retire up to Blue Ridge, but as I got older the limited medical care options became more of a detractor.

When all was said and done I chose to settle down in Huntsville, AL which sits at the Southwestern end of the Appalachians.

I often stay in the Mountains between here and Asheville, NC for Vacations.

Yep, that’s why we chose to live on the north side of Gainesville. It’s close to everything in the mountains within a relatively short drive, but also just a short distance from every medical specialty you can possibly imagine as well as a level 2 Trauma Center.

[MtnFlyer]

Originally Posted by OhioNative

Yep, that’s why we chose to live on the north side of Gainesville. It’s close to everything in the mountains within a relatively short drive, but also just a short distance from every medical specialty you can possibly imagine as well as a level 2 Trauma Center.

I didn't realize the Gainesville medical community was the robust. Too bad it's not nestled a little closer up up to the base of the mountains like Huntsville is. Ugh.

[OhioNative]

Originally Posted by MtnFlyer

I didn't realize the Gainesville medical community was the robust. Too bad it's not nestled a little closer up up to the base of the mountains like Huntsville is. Ugh.

I can see the mountains from a distance at the top of my street but it’s about a 25 minute drive to either Cleveland or Dahlonega to actually get to them. Close enough for me but might not be close enough for some.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by MtnFlyer

I didn't realize the Gainesville medical community was the robust. Too bad it's not nestled a little closer up up to the base of the mountains like Huntsville is. Ugh.

Gainesville may not be in the mountains or immediately at the base of the mountains, but Gainesville is decidedly in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains region and is considered a key part of the Northeast Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains region.

Gainesville basically is considered to be the business, industrial, social and political hub of the Northeast Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains region.

Gainesville is the largest city in the greater Northeast Georgia Mountains region and is the largest municipality in the state north of metro Atlanta.

Gainesville is considered to be a very important transition point between the largely rural wilderness area of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia (and Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee) to the north and the much more heavily populated and developed Atlanta metropolitan area to the south.

Gainesville is a really good area to consider if one both wants to be close to the Blue Ridge Mountains and wants to be close to the metropolitan amenities of the Atlanta metro area without actually having to live in the Atlanta metro area.

Gainesville has many of the metropolitan amenities that Atlanta has but without all of Atlanta’s crime, traffic and overcrowding while still being relatively very close to the beautiful scenery and outdoor recreational amenities of the Blue Ridge Mountains wilderness area of North Georgia, Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.

From Gainesville, the mountains are literally just minutes away and are very easily accessible by way of routes like U.S. Highway 129, Georgia State Route 60 and Georgia State Route 365 (U.S. Highway 23).

So it’s not like one would be really far away from the mountains while living in the Gainesville area.

[y8tiger]

I lived in Gainesville during the mid 90's. It was a very different place back then.

I used to sit on the deck of my Apartment and watch the sunset over Lake Lanier with the mountains near Dahlonega in the distance.

While it was close to the Mountains, this actually increased my longing to live up in Blue Ridge.

As I recall, it used to take more than half an hour to get up to Dahlonega or Cleveland.

Huntsville, AL, Greenville, SC, and Asheville, NC ended up making my top choices.