Southeast Georgia Health System has surpassed its previous peak of 98 hospitalizedCOVID-19patients set in July 2020 with a reported 112 inpatients on August 8, 2021, 36 of whom are in the intensive care unit.
“More than half of our hospitalized patients are COVID-19 patients,” states Michael D. Scherneck, president and CEO, Southeast Georgia Health System. “This is the highest number of coronavirus patients the Health System has cared for throughout the entire pandemic. We hold meetings each morning to discuss how we can create more beds, not to mention how we can find more staff, to care for the increasing number of COVID-19 patients.”
Just one month ago, on July 8, the Health System reported only 14 COVID-19 hospitalized patients. Two weeks ago, on July 26, it reported 41 COVID-19 patients. Of the 112 hospitalized patients reported on August 8, only 11 are vaccinated. Only two of the 36 intensive care unit patients are vaccinated.
“As overwhelming as it is for our patients and their families to have a loved one in the hospital, it’s painful for our staff who are caring for these patients, knowing that many of the hospitalizations could have been prevented if more people would have gotten vaccinated,” says Scherneck. “Less than 10% of our COVID-19 patients are vaccinated, and only two of the 36 patients currently in the intensive care unit are vaccinated. There may be breakthroughs with vaccinated people contracting coronavirus, but the vaccine helps to prevent serious illness and hospitalization.”
The Health System offers the free Pfizer vaccine to everyone age 12 and older at its Brunswick and Camden Campus hospitals. Walk-ins are welcome but appointments are encouraged to ensure adequate supplies are available. The Coastal Health District and many local stores, such as CVS, also offer the COVID-19 vaccine. For a list of locations, dates and times, visit the Health System’s website at sghs.org/covid19-vaccine.
Drive-thru COVID-19 Testing
In addition to the vaccine, the Health System provides COVID-19 testing for both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. But similar to many hospitals, the Health System Emergency Care Centersare experiencing substantially longer emergency room wait times, a result of an increase in the number of patients awaiting an inpatient bed combined with an increase in those seeking coronavirus testing.
“Our emergency room wait times have surpassed anything I’ve ever experienced in my medical career,” says Mohsen Akhlaghi, M.D., chief, Department of Emergency Medicine, Southeast Georgia Health System. “Our hospitalized COVID-19 patient census exceeds the number of beds we have available and, as a result, we have inpatients being cared for in the Emergency Care Center, resulting in an increase in the wait times for people with emergencies. It’s a traffic jam at its worst.”
Akhlaghi adds, “While some of the people who are coming to the Emergency Care Center are seriously ill or injured, there are some who are experiencing mild COVID-19 symptoms, or who were exposed to someone with COVID-19 but are not experiencing symptoms, and they’re just here for a COVID-19 test. We strongly urge those people to visit one of our outpatient testing sites or one of the county sites. It will lessen their chance of exposure to other illnesses and help to reduce the wait times for patients with severe illnesses or injuries.”
“People need to know that if they come to the Emergency Care Center it is likely that they are going to experience longer wait times. And they need to be understanding with all of our staff who are overwhelmed, tired and working more hours than their shifts normally require. We don’t have the staff available to care for this many patients so many of them are taking on extra shifts. Our staff are as exhausted dealing with the effects of COVID-19 as everyone else is and they are doing their very best to get through it and provide quality care to all our patients.”
Scherneck adds, “It’s very hard, very disheartening for our health care teams to be going through this again. The hardest part is that we aren’t experiencing the community support that was shown last year when there wasn’t a vaccine available. Now, when almost everyone has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, people are voicing negative opinions about the vaccine yet complaining about long wait times in the Emergency Care Center. Our frontline workers are dismayed by the reactions of those who chose not to become vaccinated. We acknowledge that the vaccine is a personal choice, but with that choice comes an obligation to accept the consequences. We know that everyone wants to move past COVID-19 and certainly none of us thought that we’d be dealing with it for so long. That’s why people need to get their vaccine. It reduces the risk of getting seriously ill and being hospitalized or dying. It reduces the opportunity for the virus to mutate to new variants. Do it for yourself, for your loved ones, for others.”
The primary symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, fatigue, muscle/body aches and shortness of breath. More advanced symptoms requiring immediate medical attention include difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, sudden confusion, inability to arouse, and bluish lips or face.
The Health System offers drive-through outpatient COVID-19 tests across from the Brunswick Campus Emergency Care Center. In St. Marys, walk-in tests are available by appointment, Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., at Southeast Georgia Physician Associates-Primary Care. To schedule an appointment, call 912-882-6767.
The Coastal Health District also offers free COVID-19 testing in Camden and Glynn County. Testing appointments for both locations can be scheduled online at covid19.dph.ga.gov or by calling 912-230-9744, Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Individuals with questions about COVID-19 symptoms can call the Health System’s free screening hotline at 912-466-7222. To schedule an appointment for a free COVID-19 vaccine, visit sghs.org/covid19-vaccine.
