Chris Herbert | The Valdosta Daily TimesDr. Bipin Patel, Dr. Mahmood Eisa and Dr. Hernan Posas introduced themselves to the hospital authority as the newest members of the South Georgia Medical Center Physicians Network. Their practice, Neurology, Neurosurgery and Sleep Center of South Georgia, will be renamed SGMC Neurology and Neurosciences as a result of the purchase.

VALDOSTA – As the number of COVID-19 patients treated at South Georgia Medical Center has decreased during the past two weeks, a new question was posed this week.

“Where do we go from here?” asked Ronnie Dean, SGMC chief executive officer.

Dean addressed the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County Wednesday morning about what the future of the hospital’s response to COVID-19 will be. Being able to possess enough bed capacity for coronavirus patients will be a key part of SGMC’s continued response as the pandemic continues past its fifth month in the community, Dean said. 

Randy Smith, SGMC chief nursing officer, expanded on the specifics of bed capacity by reviewing the different departments and how many COVID-19 patients each one can handle. 

Smith noted that department 2E has transitioned into a labor and delivery COVID-19 unit; department 2W admits adult obstetrics patients; department 4S was converted to a 23-bed medical COVID-19 unit; department 5S opened a 12-bed intermediate COVID-19 unit; department 2T reconfigured into 16 COVID-19 bed and eight non-coronavirus beds; department 3T increased its capacity to 16 non-COVID-19 beds; 4T increased to 24 ICU bed for coronavirus patients; and the Smith Northview location has increased its capacity to 24 beds for patients not affected by coronavirus.

In addition to bed capacity, authority Chairman Sam Allen asked about the hospital’s COVID-19 testing, specifically asking Dean about the timing of results. 

Dean said he feels “pretty good about where we are” as SGMC has three in-house testing options which have been “very helpful managing our capacity” and speed. He added that volumes of testing kits fluctuate with national need, but they are always trying to buy more kits. 

Dean mentioned new developments in COVID-19 testing — such as the recently FDA-approved saliva tests and “quick tests” currently in development by companies — that the hospital would be interested in once available.

In other matters, the Hospital Authority approved two items presented by the building and grounds committee. The first was a facility study contract valued at $185,000 that should be complete within four to five months, Dean said, and the other item allows Dean to enter into negotiations to acquire a medical building.

The morning also saw three new additions to the hospital system as Dr. Bipin Patel, Dr. Mahmood Eisa and Dr. Hernan Posas, physicians at Neurology, Neurosurgery and Sleep Center of South Georgia, introduced themselves to authority members. 

Last week, SGMC announced the three doctors are joining the SGMC Physicians Network. NNSC is the latest acquisition by the hospital system and will be renamed SGMC Neurology and Neurosciences.

Authority members entered into executive session at 8:48 a.m. and re-emerged at 9:57 a.m. After the closed session, members approved recommendations from the medical executive committees at the main, Berrien and Lanier campuses. They also approved the minutes from the quality improvement committee.