It may be hard to imagine that a regional hospital with 557 beds and state-of-the-art medical equipment had such humble beginnings.

But as Phil Hudgins outlines in a film that will be shown at today’s Taste of History luncheon, health care in Northeast Georgia has come a long way in 100 years.

"Now, if you look out of most of the buildings around Gainesville and look that direction (of the hospital), it looks like a miniature city over there," said Glen Kyle, managing director of the Northeast Georgia History Center, which is sponsoring the luncheon. "It’s just so — the hospital, Longstreet Clinic, diagnostic clinic, all those doctor’s offices and the imaging center — it’s just had a really, really huge impact."

One of Hall County’s first hospitals was a private one located in the home of Dr. James Henry Downey in 1908. Even after World War II, when the county merged the Downey hospital with a public hospital using federal funds, the new hospital had only 90 beds.

"People thought a hospital with 90 beds would never be full — it would be a lot of empty beds — well, you know that’s not true," said Hudgins, who interviewed 14 people for the video detailing the evolution of health care in Northeast Georgia.

The film follows health care from its beginnings in physicians’ homes to today, when Northeast Georgia Medical Center has become the largest employer in Hall County, serving 700,000 people in 13 counties. After today’s Taste of History luncheon, the film will become part of the history center’s health care exhibit.

The history center’s annual Taste of History luncheon usually focuses on individuals from the area, but Kyle said event organizers wanted to shift the focus this year.

"This year, we thought, ‘Well, let’s try and find something in the community... that has really affected everyone’s lives and has seen sweeping changes over the last few decades,’" Kyle said. "And that sort of brings health care right up to the top, brings it right to the forefront of the mind."

"(Health care is) considered so modern. You go to the doctor to feel better, and you see all these machines and all these new medicines but you don’t really think about how it got to where it’s at," Kyle said. "... Folks today sort of take it for granted that it’s not like it was then."

And though the luncheon covers a topic at the center of a national debate, there won’t be any political conversation today.

"The history center is not in the business of trying to make any political commentary, so we’re trying to avoid that," Kyle said. "... We’re doing more of a retrospective here than trying to bring attention to the current and continuing debates that are happening."

"When we planned this a year ago, we had no idea that we were going to be having this right smack-dab in the middle of this whole debate."