As with most hospitals across the nation, Southeast Georgia Health System’s Brunswick and Camden Campus hospitals are experiencing substantially higher than normal patient volumes and long emergency room wait times.
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This graph shows the dramatic increase in COVID-positive inpatients in Camden and Brunswick.
As with most hospitals across the nation, Southeast Georgia Health System’s Brunswick and Camden Campus hospitals are experiencing substantially higher than normal patient volumes and long emergency room wait times. Health system leadership reports the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, driven by the more contagious delta variant and low vaccination rates, as the primary contributing factor for the increase and a significant cause for concern.
“The current surge of COVID-19 hospitalized patients is rapidly approaching our previous peak of 98 inpatients we experienced last summer,” said Alan Brown, M.D., chief medical officer, Southeast Georgia Health System. “This summer we were starting to feel some relief with our COVID patient census hovering between four to eight patients in early July. Now, just a few weeks later, we’re starting August off with 79 hospitalized COVID patients, 14 of whom are on ventilators. At this rate, we’ll soon be facing capacity challenges, not only for patient beds, but also for nursing teams who care for our patients.”
Brown adds that the number of patients coming to the health system’s emergency care centers to be tested for COVID-19 are impacting the wait times for people with other illnesses. Patients who are experiencing symptoms and in need of a test, but who are not experiencing life-threatening symptoms, are advised to visit one of the health system’s outpatient COVID-19 testing sites instead of the emergency care centers.
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.
“While some of the people who are coming to the emergency care center with COVID symptoms are seriously ill and need to be admitted to the hospital, there are some who are experiencing mild symptoms, or who were exposed to someone with COVID but not experiencing symptoms,” said Brown. “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.”
COVID-19 testing is available by appointment, Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., at Southeast Georgia Physician Associates-Primary Care in Camden County. To schedule an appointment, call (912) 882-6767.
The Coastal Health District also offers free COVID-19 testing at the Camden County and Glynn County health departments. 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.
“We had hoped the vaccine would bring us the relief we all so desperately need, especially our nurses,” says Brown. “It’s very hard, very disheartening for our health care teams to be going through this again. People need to get their vaccine. The vaccine reduces the risk of getting seriously ill and being hospitalized or dying. Do it for yourself, for your loved ones, for others.”
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.
(Contributed by Southeast Georgia Health System)