How are Macon hospitals dealing with second wave of COVID-19 cases?
In late June, after months of social distancing, shelter-in-place orders and encouragement from health experts and government officials to wear masks and wash hands, Coliseum Medical Centers was treating fewer than five people for COVID-19, down from a pandemic peak of 31.
But as Gov. Brian Kemp relaxed shutdown restrictions and Middle Georgians left their houses to return to work, dine out or celebrate holidays — many unmasked — a “second wave” hit. On July 23, Coliseum hospitals were treating 49 COVID-19 patients. On Aug. 6, that was up to 64, more than doubling the early pandemic peak.
That number is down to 45, as of Friday, and Coliseum Health System CEO Steve Daugherty emphasized that the system’s two Macon hospitals — Medical Centers and Northside — have never run out of critical supplies and have the capacity to treat non-COVID patients.
Daugherty noted that, early in the pandemic, people who visited the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms were “very, very ill,” and were typically older patients with other health challenges. This placed a high demand on the hospitals’ ICU beds. Then Bibb County, as well as much of the rest of Georgia and the United States, experienced a surge of cases.
“It was a larger wave, the patients were younger, and we still had a fairly significant number of critically ill people and a high demand on ICU beds,” he said.
Daugherty said Coliseum has never been short of personal protective equipment (PPE) or critical supplies like ventilators. The company that owns the hospitals, HCA, actually moved ventilators out of Georgia to New York City early in the pandemic when the city was suffering a surge of cases.
“If you look at the impact on the hospital, COVID-19 patients are typically only 25% of the total hospital capacity,” he said. “They do take extra resources and require a higher level of care, and we’ve been able to meet that demand.”
Diversion dashboard
On Aug. 3, the Georgia health department launched a statewide dashboard for hospitals to report their saturation/diversion status to EMS agencies. The diversion dashboard uses the National Emergency Department Overcrowding Scale (NEODOCS) to rate how busy hospitals are, and note whether those facilities are asking ambulance services to “divert” patients to other hospitals.
The dashboard, updated several times throughout the day, is designed to give EMS professionals insight on where to transport patients. It represents a “point in time,” Daugherty said.
“For the most part, we’ve been able to activate our surge plan and care for people who arrive at the hospital,” he said. “There are times we have to go to diversion because we are full, and that allows EMS to distribute patients so no hospital is overwhelmed. It changes day-to-day, hour-to-hour.”
For much of the past week, Coliseum’s hospitals reported they were either “normal” or “busy,” with Coliseum Medical Centers under “total diversion.” Navicent Health’s downtown Medical Center’s status has been “severe,” with diversion for people in need of ER, ICU/CCU, NICU and other services.
“Full but not overcrowded”
Navicent Health has consistently declined requests from the Telegraph and its Center for Collaborative Journalism partners to provide the number of COVID-19 patients being treated at its hospitals. In an email response to Telegraph questions, a spokeswoman noted that The Medical Center, Navicent Health is “full,” but not “overcrowded.”
“As a tertiary referral center, we frequently reach capacity at our 637-bed Macon hospital and we work with other hospitals in our system and region to ensure patients in need receive uninterrupted care.”
The Medical Center is back to “normal, pre-COVID business volumes,” according to the statement, and the number of COVID-19 patients treated at the hospital “make up a fraction of [the] overall patient volume.”
“We continue to stand ready to serve anyone who presents to our hospital in need of care, whether that be for COVID-19 or non-related illnesses and injuries,” the statement read. “Anyone who presents directly to Navicent Health for care will be treated, whether or not we are on diversion.
Not a hoax
Coliseum has avoided staffing shortages, partially because the hospitals weren’t dependent on contract workers who left lower impact areas like Georgia for states like Texas and New York. As of Thursday, Daugherty said only two of his staff members were quarantined due to COVID-19.
Still, five months of battling on the front lines of a pandemic, combined with economic uncertainty, staggered school openings and other daily challenges has stressed a busy staff.
“Any time you put an organization under stress, you go back to your mission: the care and improvement of human life,” Daugherty said. “We’ve done a lot of things to support our staff: we’ve provided counseling, hotel rooms for people who are afraid they might take the virus home; we’re laundering scrubs and providing showers, and we’re making sure everyone gets time to decompress every day. The company has an open COVID-19 survey for staff to provide feedback for what they’re feeling and experiencing.”
Despite a deluge of data from federal, state and local medical authorities and government officials, some Middle Georgians continue to challenge the virus’ potency and the effectiveness of highly publicized preventative measures. That’s a mistake, Daugherty said.
“This is absolutely not a hoax,” he said. “Seeing someone suffer from this virus would change people’s minds. It is a serious illness, a public health risk and, frankly right now in Georgia, a crisis. If you wear a mask, you reduce the amount of virus in the environment. Social distance yourself, you reduce your own risk. Wash your hands and you reduce your risk, not only with COVID-19, but many contagious diseases.
“Times like these require people to be a little less selfish and more community focused. I understand, we all would like to be eating out and going to football games, but this is the time when our community needs to come together and protect the most vulnerable people. This is short-term pain. This has had a very short duration, when you compare to the 1918 influenza pandemic or the sacrifices people made during World War II.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
