Pediatric home nursing in Gainesville and Hall County

Who we serve in Hall County

Children under 21 whose day-to-day care needs a nurse or a trained caregiver: a tracheostomy or ventilator, a feeding tube, oxygen, seizure care, or significant help with lifting, positioning and daily activities. There is no fixed list of qualifying diagnoses. Approval turns on how much hands-on care your child needs each day, and Georgia Medicaid decides who is approved, not HeartPath.

Hall is the closest serious NICU county outside metro Atlanta, which means families here often come home sooner than families further out, and then find the home nursing harder to arrange than the hospital care was. That is the gap we are here to close.

Where children come home from in Hall County

If your child is still admitted, call before discharge. The authorization takes time you would otherwise spend at home without help.

Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville on Spring Street is the regional referral hospital for north Georgia. Its neonatal intensive care unit is a state-designated Level III with 35 beds, and the hospital runs a dedicated pediatric inpatient unit alongside it. Most medically fragile babies in this part of the state come home from that building.

Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton has a state-designated Level II unit with 17 beds. Babies who need ventilator support are generally cared for in Gainesville rather than Braselton, and both units are directed by the same nurse leadership, so a family moved between them usually keeps the same team.

The most specialized surgical care can still mean a referral to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, roughly fifty miles down I-985 and I-85. That drive is exactly why the daily care belongs at home in Hall.

Babies Can’t Wait in Hall County

Hall County is served by District 2, the North Health District, administered from Gainesville. The district covers thirteen counties: Banks, Dawson, Forsyth, Franklin, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Lumpkin, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Union and White. Your coordinator is local, which is not true for most of the counties we serve.

Babies Can’t Wait is Georgia’s Part C early intervention program for children under three. It runs alongside GAPP rather than instead of it, and a child can be in both. If you are still working out which programs apply, our guide to coming home from the hospital walks through the order they happen in, and Babies Can’t Wait and GAPP explains how the two fit together.

What it costs a family here

Nothing. For children approved through Georgia Medicaid there is no out-of-pocket cost, no copay and no deductible. If you have been told your income is too high for Medicaid, read how Katie Beckett works before you give up on it. That pathway ignores parents’ income entirely and looks only at the child’s medical needs.

Starting from Gainesville

Call 678-459-2590 or check eligibility online. We talk with you, help get the physician documentation moving, and submit the authorization request to Georgia Medicaid. About 30 days from first call to care starting is typical, though Medicaid sets the pace of its own review. Here is the full timeline.