Atrium Health Floyd works with Charlotte colleagues to get vital equipment to NICU
ROME, Ga., June 25, 2025 – Each year, between 2,000 and 2,500 babies are born at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center. When Brahms’ Lullaby plays softly over the speakers throughout the hospital, teammates smile, knowing a team of medical experts are right there to take care of both mother and baby.
When there are complications or when a baby is born prematurely, Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center’s Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is ready. Sometimes, though, the unexpected happens.
This past March, our labor and delivery department experienced a surge of multiple births and admissions that resulted in three critical infants being admitted to the NICU. In one 24-hour period, two sets of twins were born, a 24-week gestation preemie was born, and two babies were admitted to the hospital.
Two of the babies needed high-frequency oscillatory ventilation.
These systems use sound waves to vibrate the incubator, forcing the baby’s lungs to open and take in the oxygen being provided to them. Jay Shedd, director of respiratory services, describes it as a powerful subwoofer, the kind of speaker every teenage boy dreams of having in his first car, the kind that rattles every part of the car and announces to the world that he has his own soundtrack to his life.
Since these tiny babies depend on this air, Floyd’s operational standard is to keep two of the devices on hand at all times, ensuring there is a backup should something happen to the first. In the event that two are needed for use simultaneously, Floyd has an agreement with a medical supplier to rent additional units that can be delivered quickly.
In his 30 years of practicing respiratory therapy at Atrium Health Floyd, Shedd said this plan has worked seamlessly. This time, however, he and his time hit some obstacles.
The rental company didn’t have any of the units available. Jay reached out to colleagues in Navicent, but they didn’t have any spares to share. He called the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. They didn’t have any to share. The rental company reached out to its other sites and located a unit on the West Coast, but time was of the essence.
Shedd then reached out to Myra Stearnes, assistant vice president for respiratory therapy at Atrium Health in Charlotte. What happened next is a testament to the value of our integration with Atrium Health. Immediately, respiratory therapy leaders inventoried the Charlotte area.
Hugh Mosely, Respiratory Therapy Director at Levine Children’s Hospital, found an available unit. The unit was placed in an Atrium Health box truck and a driver was then dispatched to Rome to deliver the oscillator to Rome overnight. It arrived at Floyd’s loading dock seven hours later.
“It wasn’t shipped via FedExor DHL,” said Aimee Griffin, vice president for professional services. “It was a kind person who probably had lots of other plans for the evening, but the team in Charlotte made sure we had what we needed as quickly as possible. Then that driver turned around and drove back to Charlotte. If you’ve ever driven from Charlotte to Rome, especially in a box truck, in evening traffic – that is no simple ask.”
Shedd is a dad. He tried to go to sleep that evening but couldn’t rest.
“I couldn’t sleep that night,” he said. “This is equipment that is critical to an infant’s life.”
Without the Levine Children’s oscillator, at least one of those children would have had to be transferred to Chattanooga or Atlanta. Because of the Advocate Health family, these babies received the care they needed in the same hospital where they were born, on the same floor as their mothers.
About Atrium Health Floyd
The Atrium Health Floyd family of health care services is a leading medical provider and economic force in northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. Atrium Health Floyd is part of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the United States, created from the combination of Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health. Atrium Health Floyd strategically combined with Harbin Clinic in 2024 and employs more than 5,200 teammates who provide care in over 40 medical specialties at four facilities: Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center – a 361-bed full-service, acute care hospital and regional referral center in Rome, Georgia; Atrium Health Floyd Polk Medical Center in Cedartown, Georgia; and Atrium Health Floyd Cherokee Medical Center in Centre, Alabama; and Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center Behavioral Health, also in Rome. Together, Atrium Health Floyd and Harbin Clinic provide primary care, specialty care and urgent care throughout northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. Atrium Health Floyd also operates a stand-alone emergency department in Chattooga County, the first such facility to be built from the ground-up in Georgia.
About Advocate Health
Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit, integrated health system in the United States, created from the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Providing care under the names Advocate Health Care in Illinois; Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama; and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, Advocate Health is a national leader in clinical innovation, health outcomes, consumer experience and value-based care. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Advocate Health services nearly 6 million patients and is engaged in hundreds of clinical trials and research studies, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the enterprise. Advocate Health is nationally recognized for its expertise in heart and vascular, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. Advocate Health employs more than 160,000 teammates across 69 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations and offers one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs with over 2,000 residents and fellows across more than 200 programs. Committed to redefining care for all, Advocate Health provides more than $6 billion in annual community benefits.
