Piedmont Mountainside Hospital announced the opening of Georgia’s first freestanding emergency room. The ER, located in Ellijay, Ga., opens in a space previously occupied by North Georgia Medical Center, which closed in June 2016.

The freestanding ER, publicly known as Piedmont Mountainside Emergency Services at Ellijay, houses emergent medical equipment, including a 64 Slice-CT scanner, x-ray, and pharmacy and laboratory equipment. Piedmont Mountainside has hired an additional 35 employees to support the location, including nurses, paramedics, respiratory therapists, and radiology and lab technicians.

Patients requiring admission or transfer will follow the same process as they would if they were entering Piedmont Mountainside Hospital’s emergency room in Jasper.