Some rural Georgia hospitals are facing a medical oxygen shortage as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase as part of a fourth surge of the virus.
Anna Adams, senior vice president of external affairs with the Georgia Hospital Association, said they started noticing the oxygen shortages about two weeks ago in rural hospitals in southeast Georgia.
“We started getting requests from our rural hospitals saying that they were running low on their oxygen supply, and they needed assistance from their oxygen vendors,” Adams said.
Adams said the GHA worked with AirGas, the state’s main medical oxygen vendor, and determined that rural hospitals have been consuming higher quantities of oxygen than normal for their patients.
Typically, rural facilities send patients with a greater need for medical oxygen to another hospital for a higher level of care, according to Adams. However, due to the sheer number of hospitalized individuals, and lack of beds, many rural hospitals are to send their patients to another facility.
Adams said she has not received any reports of these shortages in north Georgia, but she believes medical oxygen shortages could be possible in the region as hospitalizations continue to rise.
Kim Menard, media & PR manager with AirGas, told AccessWDUN in a statement that for some areas in the country with high COVID-19 hospitalization numbers, medical oxygen usage has had a two or three times increase above pre-COVID volumes.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is working to help vendors keep up with demand and combat these shortages through an executive order issued Monday which waives the weight and hours limits for trucks delivering oxygen to medical facilities.
Adams said the GHA had requested Kemp make this executive order to stop shortages from popping up in other parts of the state.
“The vendors seem to think that will be at least of some assistance,” Adams said. “So that they don’t have to use three trucks, instead, maybe they can use two. They don’t have to have four drivers, instead, maybe they can use three.”
