At a COVID-19 briefing yesterday at the State Capitol, Governor Kemp announced the state's plans to augment staffing levels for healthcare facilities in various parts of Georgia to combat the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The state has partnered with Jackson Healthcare, a Georgia company with a portfolio of staffing, search, and technology companies that assist health systems, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities with workforce needs. The state is working with Jackson Healthcare through its subsidiary Healthcare Workforce Logistics to bring roughly 570 additional healthcare professionals to key health systems.

“We are committed to giving our heroic healthcare workers the staffing support necessary to win this fight,” said Governor Kemp. “It has been inspiring to witness the work being done by those on the front lines to combat COVID-19, and I join my fellow Georgians in expressing tremendous gratitude for their service. I want to thank our partners with the Department of Community Health for assisting us in this critical initiative.”

Much of the state’s early focus has been on the staffing needs of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, one of the state’s hardest-hit healthcare systems where sixty-five additional healthcare professionals have been added to the hospital’s main campus with eighty more expected to join early next week. At Phoebe’s North campus, an additional 230 healthcare professionals are expected to be brought on board in the coming days and weeks. The state is also assisting Phoebe with standing up one of four temporary medical units across Georgia with nearly fifty staff expected to be added to the Phoebe unit.

Other temporary medical units being strategically placed across the state are located at Floyd Medical Center in Rome, Northeast Medical Center in Gainesville, and Navicent Health in Macon, across which roughly 125 new staff are expected to be added.

Additionally, nursing staff are being augmented at Palmyra Nursing Home in Albany and Pelham Parkway Nursing Home, and more than twenty employees are being deployed to Central State Hospital in Milledgeville for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

The state will issue specific guidance on the process for healthcare facilities to request assistance, which will be evaluated based on need and available resources.