by Robin Kemp
Southern Regional Medical Center reports as of Monday night that it is “severely overcrowded” and that the emergency room is on diversion, according to the Georgia Coordinating Center’s Regional Patient Distribution system. The news comes as Clayton County sees a spike in the number of new COVID-19 cases.
Nearby counties also slammed
Piedmont Henry was on “ER diversion,” “ICU/CCU diversions,” and “total diversion” as of 10:10 p.m. Monday night.
Piedmont Fayette was listed as “severe” and in “total diversion.”
In Dekalb County, Emory University Hospital, Emory Hillandale, Emory Decatur Hillandale and the VA were “severe,” with Hillandale and Emory Decatur in “total diversion” and University Hospital in “ER diversion,” “ER saturation,” and “psych diversion.”
In Douglas County, Wellstar Douglas Hospital was listed as “severe” with ER, ICU/CCU, and psychiatric diversions. Coffee Regional Medical Center was listed as “busy” with ER and ICU/CCU diversions.
In Gwinnett County, Northside Gwinnett and Eastside Medical Center were listed as “severe,” with Northside Gwinnett on ER and psychiatric diversion. Northside Duluth was listed as “overcrowded” with ER and psychiatric diversions.
In Cobb County both WellStar Kennestone and Wellstar Cobb were listed as “severe,” with Kennestone on ER and ICU/CCU diversion.
Nearly every other hospital in metro Atlanta, as well as many in other states, is in similarly dire straits due to the sudden increase in new COVID-19 cases.
Click for the latest status by county:
- Clayton
- Fulton
- Henry
- Fayette
- Dekalb
- Douglas
- Gwinnett
- Cobb
- Spalding
- Butts
- Rockdale
- Newton
- Coweta
- Walton
- Morgan
- Jasper
Tracking patient traffic
The “severe” status comes from NEDOCS, a scale for calculating how heavily emergency rooms are affected at any given time. NEDOCS levels are as follows:
- 0-50: Normal
- 51-100: Busy
- 101-140: Overcrowded
- 141-180: Severe
- 180+: Disaster
The score measures the flow of patient traffic and comes from several variables, including:
- ED Patients: total number of patients in the emergency department (ED).
- ED Beds: “Total number of gurneys, chairs, and other treatment benches in use, or staffed. Includes hallways and chairs that are opened up.”
- ED Admits: patients waiting for an ED bed.
- IP Beds: “all inpatient beds regularly staffed.”
- Last Door-to-Bed Time: the most recent time a patient was placed in a bed
- Longest Admit: the longest time a patient has been waiting for an ED bed
- 1:1 Patients: the number of patients in one-to-one nursing care (on ventilators, ICU, critical care, trauma, some psychiatric holds).
Clayton’s latest COVID numbers
Between August 2 and August 8, 689 people tested positive for COVID-19. T0 date, 26,399 cases of COVID-19 have struck Clayton County and 502 Clayton County residents are known to have died from the disease.
Of the roughly 300,000 residents in Clayton County, only one-third–92,562 people–have been fully vaccinated. 106,992 Clayton County residents, or 38%, have gotten at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Here are the latest cumulative case counts by city as of August 8:
Here are the daily number of new COVID-19 cases by city for August 2-8, 2021:
And here are the latest case counts by zip code over the past two weeks:
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