A rural pediatric-care initiative backed by Children's Healthcare of Atlanta was working with hospitals and pediatricians in 44 Georgia counties by October 2026, part of a long-running effort to close gaps in a state where dozens of rural counties have no pediatrician at all. The expansion comes as two of the program's first scholarship recipients have finished their residencies and begun practicing in rural communities this year.
The Kids Alliance for Better Care, known as KidsABC, was launched in February 2023 by Mercer University School of Medicine and the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center with backing from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, according to Mercer University School of Medicine. In July 2024, Mercer reported that an expansion into seven additional counties brought the initiative to 35 pediatric and family-medicine providers. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta committed a dedicated, long-term fund of $200 million to the effort, according to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
The scale of the shortage driving the program is stark. Of Georgia's 120 rural counties, 63 do not have a pediatrician, and many of the remaining 57 counties have only one, per the same Mercer University account. SaportaReport notes that Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, which serves children from all 159 Georgia counties despite having locations primarily in metro Atlanta, has partnered with Mercer and the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center specifically to expand pediatric care, strengthen rural hospitals and train future health care providers.
Scholarships Sending New Doctors to Underserved Towns
At the center of the initiative is a scholarship pipeline that currently includes 27 scholars, according to an American Hospital Association podcast on the program. Mercer's rural pediatric scholarship covers 100% of tuition and fees for up to four academic years, and recipients commit to practicing full-time in an approved medically underserved rural Georgia county for four continuous years after residency, per Mercer University's scholarship program page. Ten new scholarships are awarded each year, with the initiative ultimately expected to produce 100 debt-free rural pediatricians and family therapists, the same source notes.
Per SaportaReport, Marc Welsh, vice president of community impact at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, said the initiative began with conversations with rural pediatricians and hospital leaders to understand community needs, and that the partnership needed to hear from rural communities rather than assume what was best for them. Jean Sumner, dean of Mercer University School of Medicine, said young pediatricians could transform children's health care in these counties, according to the same outlet.
Two of the program's earliest scholarship recipients have already completed their residencies and returned to rural Georgia this year, SaportaReport reports. One began practicing in Tifton, while another established a practice in Brantley County, which Sumner said previously had no pediatrician, per SaportaReport's account.
Hospitals Get Readiness Training and Telehealth Links
Beyond the scholarship pipeline, the initiative's rural hospital emergency-department pilot covered eight hospitals in its inaugural year, according to Mercer University School of Medicine. Participating hospitals undergo pediatric-readiness assessments covering staffing, equipment and emergency protocols, and gain training, resources and opportunities to consult Atlanta-based specialists through telehealth, SaportaReport reports. KidsABC also offers physicians physician-to-physician support, continuing education through its Rural Pediatric Continuing Education Conference, and monthly virtual seminars with subject-matter experts, per the Mercer University account. Those telehealth consultations may reduce long-distance travel for families seeking specialized treatment, SaportaReport notes — a real burden in counties like Homerville, where some families travel 40 miles to Valdosta just for pediatric visits, according to WSB-TV.
The stakes of limited pediatric access go beyond convenience. SaportaReport reports that gaps in care can result in missed vaccinations, missed developmental screenings and delayed identification of physical or mental health concerns in children. Statewide data underscore the trend: hospitals categorized as having the lowest level of pediatric capability rose from 26.7% in 2003 to 65.0% in 2022, while the share of hospitals providing child appendectomies fell 50.5% over the same period, according to Atlanta News First. That outlet attributes the decline partly to lower reimbursement for pediatric care, staffing shortages among pediatric-trained nurses and physicians, and declining pediatric inpatient volumes.
A Decade-Long Push for Sustainable Rural Care
Georgia had 18.9 pediatricians per 100,000 people in 2020. Georgia Public Broadcasting describes Children's Healthcare of Atlanta as the state's largest pediatric care provider, with more than 60 pediatric specialties. KidsABC programs are expected to keep expanding over the next eight years as part of a ten-year initiative, per Mercer University School of Medicine, with organizers describing the goal as building a sustainable pediatric workforce across the state rather than offering short-term assistance, according to the American Hospital Association podcast.
SaportaReport reports that the partnership's long-term goal is to establish sustainable pediatric care throughout rural Georgia, and that Welsh hopes every rural community will have meaningful access to children's health services within the next decade. Sumner described the effort as building relationships and ensuring children can receive care close to home, adding that the initiative continues returning to and speaking with the communities it serves, per the same report. Similar efforts have taken shape elsewhere in the state: Emory University's School of Medicine runs a surgical outreach program at Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie, where a general surgery resident rotates through monthly, and a $4 million federal grant is funding 10 annual nursing scholarships for students training to provide mobile health services in underserved Georgia communities, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
