ATLANTA — Georgia counties are seeing a dramatic drop on the number of intensive care unit beds available in hospitals. Meanwhile, many hospitals are also trying to catch up on elective surgeries that were postponed at the height of COVID-19.
Now, health officials are trying to make up for that lost time, while running low on room. They warned if available bed space continues to be a problem, elective surgeries in some large hospitals will have to be postponed to 2021.
"We're at the point where we're closely monitoring the number of patients we have holding in areas, and if we surpass that, we're going to have to start canceling patients who come in for elective procedures that would require inpatient care," explained Grady Health System Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Jansen.
According to Dr. Jansen, Grady is currently seeing a 20% increase in surgeries. That rise is due to a mix of scheduled surgeries that were postponed during the peak of COVID-19, patients who held off on going to the hospital from fear of catching the virus, and patients who waited to schedule elective surgeries for this time of the year after meeting their deductibles.
"We're right now on a threshold," said Dr. Jansen. "Total bed occupancy - we're running close to 100% which is not unusual for us. So, really it then becomes how many more patients are in the emergency department that are waiting?"
He said it is common for Grady to have people waiting in the emergency department for inpatient beds, especially after a weekend. However, if the number of patients waiting reaches 50, he predicted Grady will then have to start canceling elective procedures.
"We are using all of our available beds right now on the medical and surgical side," noted Dr. Jansen. "This morning we had almost no beds available for admissions and we didn't have any beds in the critical care units to start the day."
This could have big financial implications on hospitals, especially those who rely on scheduled outpatient procedures.
"Surgery is without any question the most profitable - if you will - service that we provide," said Dr. Jansen. "When you have a decrease in the ability to do operations, that has a significant impact on any hospital, including ours."
Grady experienced that effect already, back in July, when procedures were postponed. But the impact was felt even more on other hospital systems.
"We're in communication with all of our colleagues," he said. "We were all in similar situations, but in July, we were a little bit impacted less because all our scheduled procedures went down, but trauma was still coming in. We have such a high volume of surgery dictated by trauma and the emergency department."
While the hope for health officials is that the number of cases improve, statistics are showing another story, as counties surrounding the metro Atlanta area see significant drops in the number of ICU beds available.
"We saw cases, as well as hospitalizations jump, with last week's data," noted Public Health Microbiologist Amber Schmidtke. "So yes, we're in a very vulnerable position."
In five days, available ICU bed space in Hall County has gone down from 8% to 2%. Cobb and Cherokee counties combined now only have 4% availability - a 2% decrease from last week. Meanwhile, Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett altogether have 21% available, which is a 3% increase.
Below, see a graphic comparison from Dec. 2 to Dec. 7.
Schmidtke said she wouldn't be surprised if elective procedures were again postponed if cases and hospitalization demand increases beyond what we're seeing in the next couple of weeks.
"Those are not just there because somebody wants to do them ... they are real, important health needs," she said.