The community is invited to a reception tomorrow in celebration of Northside Hospital's opening of an urgent care center in Dawson County.

"We're excited about being up here in Dawson County," said CEO Skip Putnam. "This is just part of our expansion and we're going to continue to expand services up here in this area. We appreciate everyone's support and we look forward to a very long relationship with Dawson County."

The hospital purchased the property at 91 Nordson Overlook in March with plans to expand services locally.

In addition to the new urgent care center, the 34,500-square-feet medical office houses Northside's expanded imaging center.

There is also space available to bring in physicians whose specialties are not currently available in Dawson County, according to Cynthia Blount, administrator at the Dawson campus.

"We're looking at orthopedics, urology, OB-GYN. We have a lot of space open on the third floor and the second floor for physicians wanting to bring in specialties that we don't have access to right now," she said.

Charlie Auvermann, executive director of the Development Authority of Dawson County, said Northside's plans for continued expansion along the busy Ga. 400 corridor shows the hospital system's trust in Dawson County and the future of the area.

"They've expanded and they've gone beyond that in the sense that they purchased enough land and have enough capacity to expand again," he said. "I'm thrilled that they are here, and I'm thrilled they show that kind of confidence in our economy and our county."

Northside will hold two open-house receptions on Nov. 29 to showcase the facilities, one from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and another at 5 p.m. when a celebratory ribbon will be cut to mark the occasion.