The major hospitals in Sandy Springs — Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, St. Joseph’s and Northside — have a $3.04 billion economic impact annually on the metro Atlanta region, an official from the Georgia Hospital Association told nearly 100 business people gathered for the Perimeter Business Alliance's Perimeter — Centers of Excellence program Friday at Cox Enterprises in Dunwoody.

A partner organization of the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts (PCIDs), the alliance addresses broad business issues affecting the Central Perimeter Market in Fulton and DeKalb counties and the cities of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.

“The health and wellness panel was the first in a series of luncheon programs initiated by the PBA to identify and clarify the different business categories that drive economic development and make Perimeter the center of excellence,” said Yvonne Williams, President and CEO of the PCIDs and the alliance.

The three hospitals in the Perimeter area employ 8,756 full and part-time, which in turn creates 18,825 jobs for the economy, said Glenn Pearson, the association’s executive vice president, who was part of the panel of five health care representatives discussing the economic and quality of life impact of Georgia’s largest concentration of medical facili-ties located in the Perimeter market.

“Just these three institutions make a huge contribution to the economy of the region,” Pearson said.

In addition, Kaiser Permanente, which has a large facility on Glenlake Parkway in the Perimeter Market, has a direct economic impact of $20 million in salaries, said Daniel J. Styf, vice president regional and marketing strategy, who also served on the panel.

Panelists who represented health care providers in the Perimeter market said the convenient access the market pro-vides for people to visit and work at the health care facilities is a competitive advantage over some other markets.