Dougherty County EMS braces for impact from street closing on North Jefferson Street

ALBANY — When a patient in southwest Georgia is seriously injured in a car accident or has a heart attack that requires immediate emergency treatment, all roads lead to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. And for ambulances, the only route to the hospital’s emergency room is from North Jefferson Street.

The clock is ticking down for the start of city of Albany sewer system work on North Jefferson Street in the area around Phoebe, and Dougherty County Emergency Management Services Director Sam Allen wants to be sure ambulances can flow unimpeded to the emergency room while the work progresses.

On Wednesday the city will close Jefferson Street to traffic from West Society Avenue to Seventh Avenue to allow work on the combined sewer separation project.

Allen is waiting for a report from the city related to a traffic consultant’s work but has recommended that work in the block of Fourth Avenue be broken into two sections, closing about half of the block at a time to allow ambulances to access the emergency room from either the north or the south and then reversing the process for the other end of the block.

The work will have an impact on not just Dougherty County emergency medical workers but those from surrounding counties. And individuals from out of town may arrive in town with a patient at 3 a.m., so the route should be marked so that people unfamiliar with the ongoing project can locate the emergency room, Allen said.

“This is going to be a huge impact, and you’ve got to do a lot of planning to prevent delays from people getting to the hospital,” he said. “We can’t access (the hospital from) Monroe. It’s not available. We’re literally landlocked to the (North Jefferson) entrance. We can make 40 or 50 trips a day. That’s not counting those other ambulance services.

“It starts Wednesday at 7 o’clock (a.m.). There’s a lot of unknowns we’ve got to figure out … ambulances, fire department, police. We’ve had gang shootings where the police had to come to the hospital and handle security. Firefighters have to have access if there’s a fire. There’s just so many variables.”

In addition to the upcoming sewer system work, Phoebe has a construction project under way across the street from the main hospital campus, and the construction of a new trauma center is ongoing behind the current emergency room facility.

That also means a lot of traffic for trucks bringing in building supplies, Allen said,

As Allen spoke with a reporter on Monday near the emergency room entrance, he raced off to a nearby accident scene on Palmyra Road where a woman who was nine months pregnant had been in an accident. The woman was not seriously injured, but the episode illustrated his point.

“If that had been serious, time would have been critical,” he said. “That’s why we’re trying to get as much information as we can so that we can get people to the emergency room without disruptions as much as possible.

“Delays can be critical. If you have a critical onboard patient where we’re performing life support in the ambulance and you experience delays, that can be life or death.”

The city announced the upcoming street closing about two weeks ago, saying it is expected to be a 10-month project. In the announcement the city said that as work proceeds, cross street intersections will be blocked, beginning with Second Avenue, requiring drivers to take alternate routes.

“There are meetings (planned) between the city, Phoebe, EMS,” Albany Public Information Officer Krista Monk said on Monday. “All of these people are meeting at the same time. When Second (Avenue) is closed, all other intersections will be open. We are a ways away from Fourth being closed.”

Allen is awaiting the report from the traffic consultant enlisted by the city as the closing approaches.

“I’m looking at Wednesday morning at 7 o’clock (and) what do my trucks need to do,” he said. “We have only one access point to get in and out. Phoebe has been exceptional. The city has been listening.”

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
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