Pediatric home nursing in Augusta and Richmond County

Who we serve in Richmond 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.

Augusta has the strongest pediatric hospital in Georgia outside Atlanta, and far fewer agencies willing to staff a trach or a vent at home, hour after hour, this far east. Families here are often told the care exists but nobody can cover the shifts. That gap is the reason we are here.

Where children come home from in Richmond County

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

Wellstar Golisano Children’s Hospital of Georgia on Harper Street is a 154-bed children’s hospital with a Level IV neonatal intensive care unit, the highest level Georgia designates, and a pediatric intensive care unit that Wellstar describes as the only Level I PICU outside Atlanta. It also runs a Complex Care Clinic for medically complex children and a high-risk developmental clinic for NICU graduates.

Piedmont Augusta on Walton Way has a Level III neonatal unit inside the Watson Women’s Center, and Doctors Hospital of Augusta has a Level II unit and a four-bed pediatric intensive care unit.

The practical point for a family here is that you very rarely need to go to Atlanta. Augusta has the hospital. What it has had less of is the home nursing to follow it.

Babies Can’t Wait in Richmond County

Richmond County is served by District 6, the East Central Health District, administered from Augusta. 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 Augusta

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.