EAST POINT, Ga. (AP) – The closure of an emergency room, inpatient beds and operating room at a hospital south of Atlanta could cause critical delays in patient care and put stress on other hospitals in the area, medical experts tell the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center South in East Point is slated to shut down on May 6 and turn into a 24-hour outpatient clinic. It currently has the only emergency room in Fulton County south of Interstate 20.
The loss of the ER could delay care for strokes, heart attacks and other medical conditions that require especially prompt treatment, the AJC reported Friday.
“Distance matters. Place matters,” said Justin Moore, a Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center epidemiologist who studies the connection between geography and health. He added, “So if you take a resource from a community that provides certain health services, I mean, that could lead to a … loss in lives.”
Other hospitals could also face additional burdens at a time when they are dealing with a return of patients for services and treatment delayed by the pandemic, said Rebecca Cash, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School.