Metro ATL Hospital Officials Unite For 'Urgent' COVID-19 Update

ATLANTA, GA — Health care officials from six of metro Atlanta's biggest hospital systems joined forces on Thursday to urge the public to get vaccinated.

During a joint news conference held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, six officials spoke about what is going on in their hospitals.

The speakers included Dr. Jim Fortenberry, chief medical officer at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta; Sharon Pappas, chief nurse executive at Emory Healthcare; Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer and chief of staff at Grady Health System; Dr. John Delzell, vice president of medical education and incident commander at Northeast Georgia Health System; Dr. Andy Jaffal, chief medical officer at Piedmont Healthcare; and Dr. Danny Branstetter, medical director of infection prevention at Wellstar Health System.

Many of the hospitals are seeing their emergency departments and ICUs at or nearing capacity, which Jansen said was the case for Grady Health System.

"We are having to go on diversion not because of trauma cases, but because our emergency department is full of patients who are infected with Covid," Jansen said. "We never turn anyone away, but the impact of COVID on those patients who need our care is significant."

To keep tabs on this situation, the state created the Georgia Coordinating Center in 2019 after flooding at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta severely damaged its emergency room, limiting its ability to accept ambulance traffic. The website posts capacity information from Georgia hospitals, with the busiest facilities updating their status regularly.

As of Thursday afternoon, Grady was at a "severe" level, and its medical department unable to accept any incoming ambulance traffic.

At Wellstar, Branstetter said they are seeing a virus that no longer distinguishes between age, ethnicity or preexisting illnesses.

"The virus is drawing a distinction between those who are vaccinated and those who are unvaccinated," he said. "Our hospitals are once again filling up with young and old people, and those with comorbidities who have not been vaccinated. Over 92 percent of our hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, including those in our ICUs. Sixty percent of our ICU patients are those who are unvaccinated and have COVID-19. These are huge numbers, and we're seeing this peak rise very quickly. It's rising to match or exceed the peaks we saw in December and January."

There is still hope, he said, and there are things we can do as a community to once again come together to combat the enemy.

"This is not vaccinated versus unvaccinated," he said. "This is an enemy we can't see, feel or smell any longer. But we can continue our fight to prevent this by continuing the safety measures we've talking about: wearing our mask, watching our distance, and washing our hands, staying home if we're ill, getting tested and screened if we've been exposed or have illnesses, and we can get vaccinated. The vaccines have been proven safe and effective at reducing not only infection, but if infected, and we are seeing that, but reducing the need for hospitalization and ICU stay."

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is also seeing a significantly greater impact on kids and teens due to the delta variant, Fortenberry said.

"We're seeing more cases at emergency departments, hospitals and ICU than any time during the pandemic," Fortenberry said. "Only a small percentage of children who test positive will need to be hospitalized. But that doesn't mean they don't experience illness, and that can be a significant illness, and miss out on activities like school and sports."

Another setback Children's is facing is a combination of a more transmittable COVID-19 variant, with an "unusual surge of summer respiratory viruses."

"This is fueling high volume in the emergency department, urgent care, hospital floors, ICUs," he said. "We've managed to maintain the volume, but a continuous rise in numbers will continue to push our capabilities."

As of Thursday, Fortenberry said there are 31 children hospitalized across Children's three hospitals with COVID-19. Majority of the kids he's seen with the virus also have underlying medical condition like cancer, sickle cell, severe obesity or asthma.

"They're having to fight this terrible virus in addition to the health challenges they're already facing," he said. "Many of the kids can't get the vaccine cause of ages, so we all play a role in preventing the spread to them. The best way to protect all of our kids is to get vaccinated. It is the way out of the pandemic right now. We owe it to our kids to do everything we can to protect them."

Nurses are another group that have been hit especially hard during the pandemic. Pappas said she has been in nursing for over 40 years, and has never seen nurses being tested this much, or so many leaving or pausing their career due to stress, both personally and professionally.

"These subsequent decreases in staffing have directly correlated to our ability to provide access to care to the many patients and families who depend on us daily," Pappas said. "Our nurses are the central surveillance system for hospital care. They also stand by the bedside of our patients, comforting families and loved ones. In many ways, nurses become extended family members of those who seek care when they're hospitalized. This is deeply affecting our nurses because we know the spread is preventable. Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients are placing a large strain on our hospitals here in metro Atlanta."

For a list of Georgia hospitals and their capacity to accept new or emergency patients, visit the Georgia Coordinating Center's website.

To find where to get vaccinated or tested near you, visit the Georgia Department of Public Health's website.

Watch the full news conference:

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