Bryce Ethridge | The Valdosta Daily TimesDr. Clark Connell, SGMC emergency room director, gave the members of the Hospital Authority an update on the situation in the emergency room. He said staff is working hard, but they're dealing with shortages because of the omicron variant's high transmissibility rate.

VALDOSTA – Sam Allen, Hospital Authority chairman, said he can’t fathom what emergency room personnel are going through with at least 250 patients a day since the day after Christmas.

To put it in perspective, Dr. Clark Connell, medical director of the South Georgia Medical Center ER, said in 2019, the target daily visit count was 197 patients.

That’s a 26.9% increase and though it’s a relatively small increase, half of the current average of patient visits, 125, are infected with COVID-19.

As of Jan. 19, SGMC has 87 COVID patients in its care, three of which are on ventilators. The hospital reports 73% of the patients placed on ventilators during the surge are unvaccinated and their ages range between 32-79.

It’s a stark contrast to the five hospitalized patients on Christmas Day 2021. Since that time, the inpatient count has risen by 1,640%.

Dr. Brian Dawson, Chief Medical Officer, said on Tuesday 1,204 people took COVID-19 tests, 490 of which were positive.

It’s when you’re looking at a scenario such as this that makes you wonder what’s going on in the frontlines, he said. Connell presented that view, calling the situation a detriment to staff.

Staff, despite being vaccinated (and) despite doing all the things you’re supposed to do, still get the virus, Connell said. It leads to staffing shortages but despite that, the ER staff is trying to stay strong.

Connell said on this front, they’re trying to take the fight to the lobby.

“I’m literally out there calling people’s names,” he said. “You go over and get people and bring them back, but that’s what you have to do.”

When the hospital gets full and you’ve got people backed up to the door, you’ve got to make sure these people are taken care of. And that’s what they’ve tried to do, he said. 

Connell said the Smith Northview campus’ opening was a great move in terms of decompressing the emergency room. It relieved the ER from testing and thus relieved a substantial amount of patients that would come in for only that.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the ER is going to succeed or fail based on those around it,” Connell said.

But do they always get it right? Connell said no because people are having to wait and that bothers him.

As Allen put it, there could be a waiting patient with one person in front of them and 30 people behind them who is getting agitated because they aren’t number one. In the midst of that, the ER staff is still handling everyone with care.

Connell said he appreciates the sentiment, but he doesn’t want to get comfortable knowing that.

He told the Hospital Authority the behavior of his staff comes down to two things: the philosophy that you can always be nice to people and a little scripting.

The latter of the two meaning staff could say something like “I’m sorry for your wait, we’d love to get you into a room. I’m going to try to get things done so you don’t have to sit here all day long.”

“That sounds simple, but it goes a long way,” Connell said.

The staff needs to be taken care of during this time too, Connell said. With SGMC knowing how difficult it can be to obtain and retain nurses, he said the staff needs to be appreciated.

That’s putting a spotlight on them or highlighting something good they’ve done — giving them “grace,” he said.

“I’m not saying this to make excuses,” Connell said. “I’m saying it because I’m looking at a long-term picture of how to recruit, retain and build the culture you want to have.”

SGMC is in the middle of a surge caused by the omicron variant of COVID-19 and there’s no telling when it may end.

Staff need to be understanding toward one another, lifting each other up, Connell said.