Discover how Tanner Health has grown over the years.
1949 – Tanner Memorial Hospital opens in Carrollton, Georgia — the product of a community-wide fundraising drive led by a visionary group of physicians and community leaders. The hospital was named for the family of Carrollton grocer C.M. Tanner, who gave $75,000 toward the hospital’s construction.
1985 –With the blessing of the Tanner family, Tanner Memorial Hospital officially changes its name to Tanner Medical Center (i.e., Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton). Tanner also expands into a two-hospital system as the former Villa Rica City Hospital joins the organization, becoming Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica.
1985 – Advanced cancer treatment comes to Carrollton with the opening of the Tanner Radiation Center. The center would later be named the Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center in honor of the first chair of Tanner’s Board of Directors and the founder of Southwire.
1988 –Tanner underwent a change of governance, introducing the Tanner Medical Center Inc. Board of Directors and creating Tanner Medical Foundation.
1997 – With two hospitals and a growing line of services, Tanner Medical Center adopts a name more reflective of its role in the community: Tanner Health System.
1998 – Higgins General Hospital in Bremen affiliates with Tanner, expanding the range of services the hospital provides and housing many of its new specialties.
2003 – Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica moves patients from the original 1950s hospital to a new, 40-bed hospital.
2006 – Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton launches an interventional cardiology program, featuring angioplasty and stenting, and bringing a powerful new treatment to the region’s leading cause of death: heart disease.
2008 – Continuing to boldly battle heart disease, the four-story Tanner Heart and Vascular Center opens at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton. The center would later be renamed the Adams Heart Center.
2009 – Willowbrooke at Tanner opens in Villa Rica, becoming the first new, inpatient behavioral health facility built in Georgia in at least 20 years.
2015 –Within just a few years of opening, the growing need for inpatient mental health care leads Willowbrooke at Tanner to open a 30-bed expansion, increasing its capacity for adults, children and adolescents to 92 beds.
2017 – Tanner Medical Center/East Alabama opens in Wedowee, Alabama, after 86% of Randolph County voters supported the new hospital in a special referendum implanting a 1% sales tax. The hospital replaced the former Wedowee Hospital.
2021 – Realizing the need for senior housing, Tanner opens The Birches at Villa Rica — a first-of-its-kind senior living option that’s fully integrated into a regional health system. The community offers 36 assisted-living apartments and 25 memory care apartments.
2021 – In partnership with Linco Development, Tanner begins construction on The Birches on Maple — a unique 55-and-older life plan community featuring freestanding single-family homes, cottages and apartments. The community will allow seamless transitions from active and independent living to assisted living and memory care, as well as wellness programs from Tanner’s Get Healthy, Live Well and more.
2023 – Building on the success of its interventional cardiology program — featuring two regional accredited chest pain centers — Tanner launches an open-heart surgery program at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, fulfilling a long-time need and firmly establishing comprehensive heart care in the region.
2024 – A massive expansion to Tanner Cancer Care’s Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center brings a patient experience that matches the quality of the care, featuring the most advanced radiation therapy delivery system available. Tanner celebrates its 75th anniversary in November, starting on Oct. 1 with new branding and a new name, Tanner Health, followed by a series of celebratory events and more.