ATLANTA — An Atlanta Medical Center nurse said on any given day, the staff deals with countless gunshot wounds, car accidents, stabbings, and beatings that they aren’t sure how leaving all these patients with only one trauma one level hospital will work.
The employee, asking to remain anonymous, shared heartbreak and fear over the announcement of the hospital’s closing on Nov. 1.
The nurse explained the first shock came from finding out about the closure in a news article.
“No one knew,” they said. “One of my coworkers called HR to confirm and they didn’t even know.”
The next day, staff members received a letter, emailed from Wellstar, confirming the news. Soon, staff started receiving offers and assignments to transfer. But the staff didn’t get to choose where they would go, leaving some to grapple with how to handle travel, childcare, and the demands of the job.
“They did this thing called mapping and I guess they did it based on what shifts you’re assigned,” explained the nurse who received an offer in Cobb County. “That’s like, 45 minutes without traffic. If I’m on call, you literally have half an hour to get there. It’s going to be impossible. It’s almost like setting us up for failure because if we don’t make it on call, it’s like a no call, no show if you’re not there in your window.”
The nurse said they worked overtime to show up for their community, during a time when hospitals are short-staffed. But for them, the news of transferring isn’t the worst part.
“Feels like I’m walking away and people are gonna die,” the nurse said.
The nurse said Grady and Atlanta Medical often send patients to each other when one hospital doesn’t have enough beds; and when dealing with trauma patients, every single second counts.
“People come through the doors sometimes from the helipad, straight into the OR, near dead already and I watch these amazing doctors do everything to save these people and that isn’t going to happen. They’re gonna die!” the nurse exclaimed.
They can’t understand how Wellstar can’t find a way to continue to fund the needs of the community.
“We can tell you where the wastefulness is, where you can save money, we can tell you how to do this and that, but nobody ever asked the people who actually do the work to where it actually makes sense, because they’re just looking at paper and numbers,” they said.
The nurse also showed me several emails detailing bonuses and incentives offered to staff to work extra over the past few months. They said on top of everything that happened, some staff members have yet to be paid for any of the extra work.
Wellstar has not agreed to an interview on anything involving Atlanta Medical. The only thing to do now is to continue to care for patients as long as they can and hope something keeps the doors open.
“It just makes me want to cry. I don’t know any other way to describe the fear over the disappointment. I’m just devastated. Devastated,” the nurse said.