ATLANTA — New research finds Grady Memorial Hospital has one of the busiest emergency rooms in the country. According to Nice Rx Health, Grady had more than 160,000 emergency room visits in 2021, the fourth-highest total nationally. Statewide, Georgia logged more than 800,000 ER visits per the study.
Dr. Katrina Gipson has worked in Grady Hospital's emergency department for four years now. She said the increase in ER visits hurts the patients who need care the most.
“For patients, this means longer wait times, a lot of frustration with the healthcare system that may already be contributing to difficult relationships with their healthcare providers," Gipson said.
The research found the top three reasons for ER visits in the Peach State were general admissions to the emergency department, births and surgeries.
"We are a safety net hospital, so what that means is our patients are disproportionately uninsured or under-insured," Gipson said. “We are also in the middle of a Triple pandemic. There’s a rise of flu, COVID unfortunately hasn’t gone anywhere, and we’re also seeing RSV as well. That’s leading to increased numbers of ER visits.”
Gipson said car crashes and crime also contribute to the higher number of patients. Then there's the closure of Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center back on November 1, which left Grady as the only level one trauma center in metro Atlanta.
"We are the only source of care for a lot of our patients, particularly now with us being the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the area," Gipson said. "We’re disproportionately seeing the city’s trauma patients, as well as surrounding areas. We’re doing our best to respond to this increased number of patients, including hiring new faculty, nurses, as well as increasing the number of beds we have for in-patients as well.”
A level one trauma center puts a focus on community outreach, public education and research. Level two trauma centers typically focus strictly on patient care and will often outsource more delicate procedures like heart surgeries to a level one trauma center.
Additionally, a level one trauma center provides care across more departments, including internal medicine, specialized maternity wards and pediatric care.
“A lot of us healthcare workers are experiencing burnout with higher patient loads," Gipson said. "We want to deliver the best care to our patients at all times. But a lot of times, our resources are falling behind, and it can be extremely difficult. It’s just making it a little more difficult for us to provide the gold standard of care that we know our patients deserve.”
Gipson expects even more patients to flood Grady's ER in the future, especially around the holidays and into 2023. She recommended that people wear masks and get the latest COVID vaccination booster.
“A lot of that is going to directly correspond to increased numbers of infective diseases with COIVD, flu and RSV go," Gipson said. "As people are beginning to travel more and feel more comfortable doing so, to see their families over the holidays, we’re likely going to see spikes in COVID as well as influenza, simply because we’re interfacing with each other more.”
Grady recently created a new nursing helpline to address overcrowding in its emergency room. It helps the patient navigate to the right place, whether that's urgent care, the emergency room or another option