Piedmont Henry Hospital has added a structure outside the emergency department to provide an additional waiting area for low acuity patients. The additional space was created with the goal of allowing patients and their designated care partner to safely distance themselves from others and to provide an efficient way to screen patients in a timely manner.

Piedmont Henry is home to one of the busiest Emergency Departments in metro Atlanta, totaling approximately 90,000 visits per year – prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our hospital is very busy, especially our emergency department, which is among the busiest in metro Atlanta,” said Lily Henson, M.D., CEO of Piedmont Henry. “The additional waiting area is just one of many spaces we have built to make sure we can provide safe, high-quality care to the influx of patients we are seeing. We appreciate the support of our community and urge everyone to be patient when they come to the hospital. Some of our patients are critically ill and have imminent needs for care. Patients are seen not in the order they arrived, but how immediate their need is to be treated. This is how emergency medicine works, whether in the middle of a pandemic surge of cases or even before we saw our first COVID case.”

The current surge has stretched Piedmont Henry’s resources to meet the needs of patients. The hospital has built a pod of the emergency department outside of the registration area in the north tower to treat low acuity patients and have also built a space for a monoclonal antibody clinic in a seating area on the ground floor of the hospital.

“It can be a bit of a puzzle, creating areas to treat our patients, but our staff has met every challenge of this pandemic and continues to make a positive difference in every life they touch,” said Dr. Henson. “Now, we need the community to get vaccinated as soon as possible to help slow the spread of COVID-19.”

To learn more about Piedmont Henry and see wait times for the emergency department, visit piedmont.org/henry.