The CEO of Northeast Georgia Health System is pleading with its employees to step up and take on additional responsibilities this weekend as the hospitals struggle to deal with the surge of COVID-19 patients.
In an email to employees, Carol Burrell said the system has enacted emergency staffing protocols, estimating 170 additional workers will be needed each day to get the system through the weekend. She asked both clinical and non-clinical workers to "dig deep, perhaps deeper than you ever have before, to do all that you can to help each other."
"You may feel exhausted, frustrated, wondering when this pandemic will end – the entire range of emotions. I know I am," Burrell said. "Asking you to flex outside your normal role isn’t easy, but our frontline caregivers, many who are your friends and neighbors, need your help. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t absolutely necessary."
She said, "For all intents and purposes, our hospitals are full."
According to the system's website, 268 COVID patients are being treated in NGHS facilities, about 100 patients below previous peak of 355 in January. Current projections predict the peak of this latest surge could be more than 500 COVID positive patients.
"Our clinical leaders tell us many of these patients are also getting sicker more quickly, speeding up the need for critical care," Burrell said. "As of today, we may have 5-10 critical care beds open at a point in time, but they are quickly filled by the many patients waiting in our ED or moving from a standard care area."
The system's Incident Command Center is working to expand bed capacity in its facilities. Tents have been re-erected outside the emergency departments in Gainesville and Braselton. Patients are also being treated in hallways, waiting rooms and ambulances.
Burrell said employees in clinical and non-clinical roles can help provide help to overworked nurses and other health care workers.
"I am not asking you to compromise your own mental or physical health," Burrell wrote. "What I am asking you to do is truly examine what you can do to help our frontline caregivers. We are the NGHS family, and we need each other to get through in the best possible way."
