Hospitals and healthcare providers have been battling the COVID-19 virus spread since the first case was confirmed in January 2020.
By the first week of March, both Georgia and South Carolina confirmed cases. Augusta saw its first case on March 15. Then came the first local death on March 28 at University Hospital.
CEO Jim Davis said he could not be prouder of the employees and how they cared for people, even though they faced contracting SARS-CoV-2 themselves.
Finding enough staff has been one of Davis’ biggest frustrations. University Hospital was able to use the Summerville hospital in 2020 as an isolation facility for COVID-19 patients. They were not able to repeat that when a new surge arrived in 2021.
Another problem in 2020 was just trying to figure out how to deal with a new virus and ever-changing information and recommendations from state and federal health departments. Davis said one difference in 2021 is the vaccines, which he called “hugely beneficial” to keep patient numbers and hospital admissions down.
This has been a year of major news for University Hospital, including a merger with Piedmont Healthcare, one of Georgia’s top healthcare providers.
Davis said, “I think it’s a good it’s a good thing for Augusta, it’s a good thing for University Health Care system, it’s a good thing for patients. The deal we’ve struck with them is to make sure that healthcare is extended for the next 20 years in our in our area,” He added. “We’re still going to operate pretty much the way we operate today, but we’re going to have the resources of the folks in Atlanta to help us get better at what we do and hopefully be a little more efficient as well.”
One thing Davis said he is not disappointed in was not being selected to build a new hospital in Columbia County.
In 2014, University Hospital was one of three that filed a Certificate of Need requests with the Georgia Department of Community Health to get permission to build a 100-bed hospital in Columbia County. Augusta University Health was selected by the state agency. University Hospital and Doctors Hospital both filed appeals.
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Ultimately, University Hospital dropped its appeal, but Doctors Hospital continued a court battle until the Georgia Supreme Court decided not to review last year’s ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals giving Augusta University the go ahead to build the hospital.
“I never really felt like there was a huge need for a hospital in Columbia County, but whoever gets it is going to build it, and I’m sure they’ll do fine over there,” he said. “You know, we still have a tremendous presence in Columbia County on our Evans campus and our prompt cares and Grovetown and Furys Ferry Road.”
One of his hopes for 2022 is that COVID-19 will abate, but he knows it is unlikely it will ever go away.
“If you add up last year’s revenues, and increased costs related to COVID, since it started, that’s hit University for $133 million. The government has funded us, and we were appreciative, $53 million, but that still leaves your organization upside down $80 million. That’s a big nut for an organization our size to swallow. So, you know, we’re hopeful that we can get back to business as usual as what we’d like to do,” he said.
Through all the ups and down of the past two years, Davis said there is one thing he has always counted on: University Hospital’s staff.
He is finally telling a story that made him fully realize the dedication of the staff.
In early 2021, they offered the Summerville hospital to use as a monoclonal antibody site or referral hospital. The state just needed to supply the staff.
Davis was doing a walk through with a state representative. He showed the COVID-19 units with the negative air pressure and an ante room.
But it was the locker room that he remembers.
“On the floor of the locker room there seemed like hundreds of shoes, tennis shoes and the first thing you say is, ‘Why are all these tennis shoes here,’” he recalled. “Then you realize everyone left there, and they were afraid to take their shoes home. That just tells me the bravery and the heroic efforts that our nurses and doctors and housekeepers and all of them had displayed throughout the COVID process. I’m just so proud of those folks, they just did such a great job.”
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
