Grady Memorial Hospital will start to accept some emergency patients again Friday

ATLANTA - Grady Memorial Hospital will start to accept some emergency patients transported to the facility by ambulance again starting Friday morning.

Starting a 7 a.m. Friday, Grady officials will again accept trauma, stroke, and burn patients only.

In a statement sent to FOX 5 News, a Grady spokesperson wrote:

“Grady will immediately assume the role of operating the Atlanta Metro EMS coordination center.  All ambulances transporting adult patients to hospitals within the perimeter (I-285) will contact this coordination center.  Centralizing the coordination of Metro Atlanta EMS Services will ensure patients are being transported to the appropriate facilities based on their medical needs. 

“By phasing off diversion and opening our doors to trauma, stroke and burn patients, Grady will again be able to provide the critical services other hospitals and the community rely on Grady for.  And we hope to relieve some of the burden experienced by other metro Atlanta hospitals during our current facility crisis.”

The hospital continues to make progress in its recovering following a 24-inch diameter water pipe which broke apart on Saturday afternoon, flooding several floors, interrupting the electrical systems, and causing damage. The pipe burst caused some patients to be evacuated and prevented staff from using hundreds of hospital beds.

Grady said Wednesday they hope to have 62 beds back in service within the next week, but another 158 beds could be down for months. In addition, about 30 percent of the elevators could remain out of service for the next three weeks.

Grady’s emergency room typically sees about 450 patients a day, but since Saturday they have only seen about 200 each day since they were only accepting walk-in patients.

The hospital’s moving away from a total diverse will also help ease the stress on other hospitals in Atlanta who have been taking in more patients than normal to help. That caused Emory Midtown Hospital to go on full diversion itself on Tuesday as the hospital saw itself at capacity.

Grady admits full restoration of the hospital will take months.