Much of the focus of healthcare for 2021 has still been on the COVID-19 pandemic. However, one of the greatest milestones in the fight against the virus took place early in the year.
“Right at the end of 2020 was when the vaccine first became available, and so by the time we got into January of 2021, we were really rolling out vaccinations to high-risk people, which included older people and also our health care workers,” said Doctor John Delzell, vice president for Northeast Georgia Health System and incident commander for COVID response.
Delzell said 90 percent of Northeast Georgia Health System physicians and providers are now vaccinated. In addition, 75 percent of all NGHS employees have gotten the shot.
He said NGHS officials are still working on convincing the rest of the community.
“I think Hall County is not up to 50 percent yet…some or all of the more rural counties, farther north are even significantly lower than that,” said Delzell. “I think we have still got a long way to go to get everyone vaccinated.”
Michael Covert, chief operating officer for NGHS, echoed Delzell's observation. He added more people need to get vaccinated to prevent an influx of patients and put an end to the pandemic once and for all.
“We're going to continue to promote the fact that the best thing that we can do is get everyone vaccinated in order to respond to their needs,” said Covert. “I recognize that it's an individual choice for people, but we've shown in the taking care of millions of people across the United States that those who are vaccinated do not have the same level of virus as others who have not been vaccinated.”
Considering the appearance of the delta and omicron variants this year as well, Delzell said the vaccine is the way to prevent future variants.
“It's like, what's after that? It's not just northeast Georgia, we're talking about the world,” said Delzell. “Until we get enough people across the world vaccinated, there will still be new variants.”
Ironically, the vaccine became more widely available about the same time NGHS saw its third peak in COVID-19 patients.
According to data from the NGHS COVID-19 website, this peak happened in January with 355 COVID-positive patients at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.
This peak sent staff scrambling to find bed space for patients and the personnel to assist them.
Which leads into another point of 2021- staff shortages. Like many healthcare systems around the country, NGHS struggled to find helping hands.
But Delzell said this is not a new issue, but it has been magnified by the pandemic.
“Nursing and physician shortages has been a conversation for a long time…then we go into this pandemic, and we have more need for nurses, we have more need for physicians and all the people in our care teams,” he said. “It's just made what was already a problem even worse.”
Fortunately, staff have been able to combat this issue in a couple of ways, according to Covert.
“In terms of dealing with this pandemic, it has really stretched our system, stretched our abilities to take care of people with the numbers of people who we've seen,” said Covert. “Having our staff as pandemic partners, people who might work in non-clinical areas to be of assistance and to extend out our nurses on the floor, to practice what we would define is more team nursing, that really made a difference for us.”
He said there are new graduates coming out of programs to join the healthcare system and staff turnover numbers have dropped.
“We're not out of the woods in terms of our needs of the staff, but we have seen progress of people coming to join the organization,” said Covert. “We've obviously made changes in our compensation program to recognize and value our staff in the marketplace.”
As of this report, the healthcare system is offering a $10,000 sign on bonus for nurses.
An increased number of patients with COVID-19 also forced the healthcare system to expand bed capacity, especially in critical care. Even though the number of patients has slacked off, hospital leadership have decided to leave those beds in place.
However, the Mobile Medical Unit installed outside of the North Tower at NGMC Gainesville has been removed.
“We've added additional space to replace the Mobile Medical Unit that is now being taken apart and going to be delivered back to the state, so we've created some other capabilities to add beds, particularly in our observation areas for patients,” said Covert.
In place of the Mobile Medical Unit, NGHS is adding a new patient tower. Covert said construction on the tower will get underway at the beginning of 2022.
Among other things, Covert said the new tower will allow to health system to expand surgical capacity and provide faster access to the Intensive Care Unit and operating rooms.
“We're adding 115 new beds to what we already have [and] we're going to relocate the emergency department,” said Covert. “We're really moving along at this point. And staying on schedule, we would hope to complete it by the end of 2024.”
While the pandemic certainly dominated healthcare this year, NGHS has been able to make strides in a couple of other areas as well.
Among other things, Delzell said there are two new programs starting soon.
“Just a couple of days ago [we] had the match for our new cardiology fellowship, so those new cardiology fellows will start working with the physicians in the Georgia Heart Institute next July,” said Delzell. “We also have emergency medicine and psychiatry starting next summer as new programs, so there will be emergency medicine residents and psychiatry residents.”
Delzell said a NGHS goal for 2022 is to reach patients who are further out than Gainesville or the immediate area of an NGMC location.
Something that will help the health system achieve this goal is the expansion of some of its existing campuses, specifically the Lumpkin County campus.
“As you know, when we bought that particular hospital, we made the decision that we would build a new facility and you're going to see it coming out of the ground here in this next year on the 53-acre site that we have along the 400, just south of highway 60,” said Covert.
Covert said the health system will also build new medical offices and plazas in 2022.
“Our medical office buildings that we have here, we have them now going up in Buford and Jefferson, and Bethlehem,” said Covert. “And we're creating second medical plazas in Braselton and Dawsonville, so we're going to continue to see growth in that regard.”
