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SAVANNAH, Ga. — Memorial Health stands as the sole level one trauma center in the Savannah area, which means it handles severe crime-related cases from across the Coastal Empire region.
This critical role brings with it certain risks, including the potential for retaliatory actions. In light of this, an official discussed with us the measures Memorial takes to safeguard their staff and patients when they admit a patient involved in a violent crime.
Memorial Health Hospital is equipped to initiate an emergency room lockdown in an instant.
This swift action is triggered whenever a victim of a violent crime, such as a stabbing or shooting, arrives at the facility.
“As soon as we are informed of an ongoing crime or the arrival of a patient with a gunshot wound, we proceed to initiate a lockdown,” explained Jay Goldstein, the Assistant Medical Director at Memorial Health Hospital.
When a lockdown is called in, usually it is only for the emergency room However, if a mass attack were to happen the whole hospital would be put in a lockdown.
“A lot of the time the injuries that we have, a lot of the trauma that we have here at Memorial is blunt trauma,” Goldstein said. “Unfortunately, when penetrating trauma starts to increase, sometimes it’s gang related or violence related and you’ll see an uptick of that. Any violent crime, it could be domestic as well. It will go into lockdown.”
The lockdown itself only last 10-15 minutes on average, Goldstein said. All of the emergency room operations will run as normal but there will be an extra layer of security.
No guests are allowed into the emergency room during a lockdown.
“We definitely deny the guests, but we’re not denying the patients or the patients are still going to be cared for appropriately,” Goldstein said. “We’re going to make sure we’re taking excellent care of the patients.”
Goldstein said the campus has 24-hour security but with a clock of the button they can double the amount of police and security officers.
Memorial Health’s emergency department is sensitive to going into lockdowns. Goldstein said is it easier to go into one and make sure there is no threat.