ATLANTA — With all the planes, passengers and the holiday rush at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one needs patience. Atlanta Fire Rescue Section Chief Sherwin Brown looks out for the passengers who become patients themselves.
Brown leads the airport's EMS center. It's staffed by two nurse practioners and four registered nurses. The clinic runs seven days a week except major holidays, according to Brown.
"We're dealing with nausea, vomiting, scrapes, scratches, abrasions, lacerations that can be managed outside the ER but slightly above what a paramedic can do," Brown said.
He said that the way he likes to look at it is that emergency room visits need to be concerned with potential life threats and potential loss of function.
"We do pretty much do anything under that: evaluations, cardiac, electrocardiograph testing. We have ultrasound we’re bringing in; we’ll also have point of care testing," Brown stated.
Brown said the closure of two major hospitals, Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center and South Fulton Medical Center, sparked the idea for the airport clinic. He said delays in transport times would exacerbate hospital staff, who are already strapped to respond to more calls, and some patients would have to wait 20 to 30 minutes to get proper care. Brown said the clinic has reduced a lot of unnecessary transports to emergency rooms and has saved lives, like in the case of a stroke victim.
"The fact that we had clinicians there monitoring them right then probably extended that person’s survivability a great deal from that incident," Brown said. "Many people get transported, and they’ll be at the hospital the entire day for a minor instance when we could have treated and managed it right here.”
Brown said the clinic has served about 300 patients over the last year. He expects it will help even more passengers next year. And while the work done there isn't for profit, Brown said it's a reminder of his oath to serve.
"It's always a great thing to do a service for people, to help people any way you can," Brown said. "We’re based on service and not on profit, so the profit generation would reduce some individuals from setting up. We’re not so focused on that. We’re more focused on how we can service the public as a whole.”