RINCON — Effingham Health System (EHS) is working hard to stay on top of the wave of population growth that is Effingham County is experiencing.

During a meeting at The Herald Center on Thursday, CEO Dr. Fran Witt assured the Rotary Club of Effingham County that her organization is up to the task. 

“Health care is not just a service to the community,” she said. “It is the infrastructure of the community.”

Witt discussed the impact COVID-19 has had on the hospital before turning her attention to the future. She said the lingering COVID-19 public health emergency initiated by the Department of Health and Human Services has been extended through Oct. 13, possibly for the final time. The emergency declaration has been in place since January 2020.

“We have had a total of three fiscal years in a COVID environment, in a pandemic,” Witt said.

The CEO said she doesn’t know if the COVID-19 emergency declaration will end this fall. She is sure of one thing, however.

“... how critical Effingham Health System was to this community during this COVID environment — we are crystal clear and confident that we are certainly an essential provider for this community,” she said. 

From April 2020 through June of this year, more than 1,600 COVID-19 patients went through the EHS emergency room.

“These were people who had positive tests,” she said. “Please know that we had more than 1,600 people go through our emergency room but they did not test positive for COVID.”

More than 375 people were hospitalized locally with a COVID-19 diagnosis and 65 others were transferred to other facilities.

“This was a national crisis so that certainly brought to light the need to have a hospital in this community,” Witt said. “We did more than 30,000 COVID-19 tests and, let me say, most of those were not reimbursed. It cost the hospital over $780,000 a month over a period of two years to respond to this pandemic.

“Why? We did COVID testing for employees and patients.”

The cost of personal protective equipment and staffing also elevated during this time. EHS has about 500 employees.

“Last year, we had a 22 percent turnover rate,” Witt said. “That is the highest it has ever been.”

Witt pointed to the growing demand for travel nurses as the root cause of the increase. The typical EHS turnover rate is about 15 percent, she said. Nationally, the rate is approximately 19 percent.

“Last year, we had to bring in contract labor because in the month of January we had over 86 empoyees out,” Witt said. “It was the burden of the pandemic. We had to take care of patients so we had to replace that staff.”

After the brief history lesson, Witt focused on Effingham Health System’s organizational pillars: quality, people/patient experience. strategic growth, financial performance and technology.

“Every strategic decision, every plan, everything that costs $50,000 has to be aligned with one of these organization pillars,” she said. “This is the infrastructure, the organizational framework that we use to operate.”

EHS has won several awards in a variety of areas recently, including patient care. A recent health care assessment conducted with Georgia Southern University revealed that EHS is aligned to combat Effingham County’s leading causes of death: heart and vascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.

“We are good at what we do,” Witt said. “I’m not sure what you’ve heard in the past — I’m not sure about the history — but I can tell you where we are today. We deliver quality care closer to home.”

Witt touted several technology upgrades that will help EHS serve patients better, including online appointment scheduling and the school-based telemedicine program. She also mentioned that the hospital is a Level 3 emergency cardiac care center.

 Witt noted that the EHS emergency room visits have climbed from 11,000 in 2011 to 19,175 in 2022. Some of thr 

She said, “That’s good growth, right? So we have worked very hard in our health care system to build the confidence, to hire the right people with the right skills and expertise to provide you and your family quality heath care.”

On Nov. 14, electronic recordkeeping is set to start at EHS. The conversion process was interupted a couple years ago by the pandemic.

“This is a major gamechanger for the organization and everyone in this room,” Witt said.

Witt said EHS will open a new pediatric center early next year.

“We started pediatric medicine in 2017 and that service line has grown by 56 percent,” she said. 

Expansion is also slated in the occupational medicine program. In part, this is in preparation to serve some of the thousands of employees who will converge on the area to work at the Hyundai electric vehicle plant that is currently under construction in Bryan County.

Mental health was also be a growing EHS focus, Witt said. The hospital is actively recruiting providers of mental and behavioral health care.

“You should be really proud of your health care system, your essential provider for the community,” Witt said.