VALDOSTA — Sam Allen wanted to know: what happens if South Georgia Medical Center runs out of beds?

The Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County chairman’s question stemmed from the hospital experiencing a five-day spike last week where COVID-19 patients at the hospital jumped from 40 July 6 to 69 July 10.

He asked SGMC CEO Ronnie Dean and staff the question during the authority’s monthly meeting Wednesday morning.

Dean said the hospital is incredibly busy as “virtually every bed is filled.” 

“If demand outstrips our capacity, then we begin to call on other hospitals to look for their availability.”

Dean said Georgia keeps track of which hospitals are able to accept patients transferred from other hospitals and those that cannot. 

If capacity is reached and surpassed, SGMC would look at other hospitals to send patients and would not accept other patient transfers, he said.

Dr. Brian Dawson, SGMC chief medical officer, informed the authority he had already spoken with other area hospital chief medical officers in case they need to move patients to other facilities because of a bed shortage.

The grimmest scenario — all hospitals in the region or state filling up — could result in no transfers calling that stage “disaster planning,” Dean said.

“I will tell you the state of Georgia is bulging, and it’s not just COVID,” he said. “We hear COVID, COVID, COVID but I’m on a call virtually every day with hospital CEOs around the state and there are some areas that are really overwhelmed with these non-COVID patients because they were sick and they finally had to come in.” 

For example, Dawson recounted how a recent patient was helicoptered in for both a heart attack and being positive for the virus.

He said the number of coronavirus patients changes constantly, but the hospital reported 55 COVID-19 patients being treated as of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Positive testing rates have fluctuated, Dean said, starting at 10-15% positive, dropping to about 5-8% after the first spike in cases, rising to 15-18% in recent weeks and ultimately reporting a 29% positive test rate in a single day a few days ago.

From the COVID-19 testing station at the Smith-Northview location, Randy Smith, SGMC chief nursing officer, reported 7,269 tests had been performed and more than 10,000 people had been screened.

Dawson said 17 patients were on ventilators Wednesday morning and eight were COVID-19 patients.

Noting “the data is all over the place” for predicting how long this wave will last, he said experts have suggested six to eight weeks of a peak before leveling out but he stressed that compliance with mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing were not factored into the estimate.  

“We just have planned for the extreme,” Dawson said. “… Yes we could reach a point where we might have to transfer patients but we still have some — particularly with these extra nursing staff coming in — we still have more tiers of capability with beds upstairs that we can expand into if necessary.“

As the hospital adjusts its “balancing lines” between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients, Smith said SGMC has hired more agency nurses.

Fifteen to 20 agency nurses have already arrived at SGMC, Dean estimated, and said another 20-21 will arrive Monday. The aim is to total or exceed 40 new travel nurses, Dean said, and slowly replace them with full-time nurses in the future. 

“We’ll replace the travelers over time with permanent nurses,” Dean said.

The initial rise in cases back in late March and April provided an example of the necessary equipment for hospital staff, Smith said, and because of that experience, the hospital acquired additional equipment to stock adequately for further spikes in cases. 

“Our staff have not and will not go without personal protective equipment,” he assured authority members.

Smith-Northview, in addition to the Berrien and Lanier SGMC campuses, have seen their patient volumes “increase significantly,” Dawson said 

“We would expect over the next six to eight weeks it should level out, but again, those numbers can change.” 

Two new members of the hospital were introduced Wednesday morning as well. 

Dr. Matthew Brown, a new infectious disease specialist, originally from Canada, joins SGMC after training in Baltimore, Md. 

“I’m focusing on in-patient infectious disease and I’m really excited to provide the best care I can for the patients within the realm of infectious disease and helping out in the ICU, around the floors and wherever I can,” Brown told authority members.

The hospital welcomed a new vice president as well in Jim Zacharias. Zacharias will hold the title of physician network vice president and oversee SGMC’s regional physician network which includes physician practice operations, a regional physician resource center and new physician recruitment, according to hospital officials.

“Really excited to be here. I was in Columbus 10 years prior to coming here and 15 years running a cardiology group up in Atlanta,” he said.

Authority members entered into executive session 8:52 a.m. to 10:02 a.m. 

No votes were taken during the executive session. Approved medical executive committee reports for all three campuses in open session. Committee members approved physician agreements and a workers compensation settlement.

Along with capacity concerns, Dean said the hospital still faces the obstacle of conveying factual information to the public but their recommendations to fight the virus remain the same.

“There’s so many opinions, and it’s hard for the public to grab the right set of facts in the myriad of opinions. And I’ll just say I think that’s our biggest struggle,” Dean said. “We’ll stick to the facts. Wear a mask. Socially distance. Don’t touch your face.”