While the numbers of patients have been increasing, NGHS has also worked to increase its capacity.

Carol Burrell, CEO of the health system, said in a Zoom call Wednesday with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce that ICU capacity at the Gainesville and Braselton hospitals has increased from 91 to 134 beds, and medical-surgical bed capacity has been increased from 472 to 522. The system has 108 ventilators, she said.

Couch said 38% of the system’s ventilators were in use Friday afternoon.

“These patients require much more acute staffing, sometimes two nurses to one patient in many cases. So, when we’ve added 50 beds, that would require an additional 100 nurses, which of course we obviously don’t have sitting in a back room anywhere,” Burrell said. “Plus, those that are here, they’re tired. It’s very intense work. They’re working overtime, and some of our employees are now testing positive.”

NGHS has been communicating with the state about staffing and with other health systems about the possibility of transferring patients, Burrell said.

“We’ve taken some of our staff that are not trained in critical care and partnered them with our critical care nurses … so they can support that nurse so they can focus their skillset on the critical needs of the patient,” NGHS chief strategy executive Tracy Vardeman told The Times Wednesday. “We know that by May 4, if the model is correct, then even our ability to do those types of strategies, we’d be exhausted in terms of our staff’s ability to do that. We wouldn’t have enough staff to do that.”

The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency is providing a 20-bed ICU unit at NGMC Gainesville that is expected to be operational May 5. The state is sending about 100 health care professionals — including nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists and emergency medical technicians — who will work with hospital staff at the unit, which could help with staffing shortages.

“In communities like Tifton and Gainesville, they’re having some hot spots there, mainly with the health care workers, which is one of the reasons that we have signed a contract with a private sector vendor for additional health care and medical teams, as well as having the National Guard medical teams that are deployed at all our hospitals to help them with that situation when it arises,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday during a telephone town hall with U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler.

The state is partnering with Jackson Healthcare, a Georgia company that helps health systems with staffing needs, to provide medical personnel for the unit, which will be located near NGMC’s North Tower.

“Through our internal team of recruiters and our partner agencies, our family of staffing companies find and place a wide variety of health care workers into both temporary and permanent positions across the country,” Shane Jackson, president of Jackson Healthcare, said in a statement. “We have teams that assist these professionals with travel and housing.”

Jackson Healthcare staff will start arriving in Gainesville over the next few weeks. One respiratory therapist started April 24, two more will start April 25 and a larger group that includes both nurses and respiratory therapists will start on Monday, April 27.

Brenda Simpson, NGHS chief nursing officer, said collaboration with the state could delay the May 4 date projected when the health system could hit staffing capacity.

“Adding any staff and capacity at this point will obviously help, and we’re very appreciative of the state providing the unit, supplies and staffing,” Simpson said in a statement. “In fact, after some further conversations with the (Georgia) Department of Community Health this week, the state is helping us bring on additional staffing to support other areas of our hospitals as we continue to see an increase in COVID cases. Our hope is that work will push the May 4 date back.”

Staff from other areas of the hospital are helping on COVID units, but NGHS is working to limit this and staff are taking precautions, Simpson said.