A regional president of Advocate Health is calling for greater investments in behavioral health and for leadership to ensure that health care workers feel safe in their jobs in a statement provided to the press following the deadly shootings in Atlanta.
Ken Haynes, a president for the southeast region of Advocate Health (which AtriumHealth Floyd is now part of) sent a statement out to the press calling for leaders on a state and national level – as well as everyday people – to invest in behavioral health in a way to avoid tragedies like the one that took a life and injured four others in a mass shooting incident in Atlanta on Wednesday.
A manhunt that lasted many hours and spanned across north Metro Atlanta after the midtown shooting at a Northside Medical office by 24-year-old Deion Patterson ended when he was taken into custody after he was founded in a gated condo complex in Cobb County.
Patterson is accused of shooting a 38-year-old who died as a result of their wounds and four others in the medical officer where he was seeking new treatment after CNN reported he was dissatisfied with the care he was receiving from the Veterans administration. He ultimately fled the medical office on foot, hijacked a vehicle and sent hundreds of police on high alert into Cobb County as a result of the incident.
In a show of support on Thursday, Haynes said in a statement provided to Polk Today from AtriumHealth Floyd that “We grieve with and for our fellow health care workers at Midtown Atlanta’s Northside Hospital and we support and appreciate the work of investigators to hold the person responsible accountable for his actions.”
However he also said in the statement that “Your leadership teams will continue to demand greater protections to ensure that as you care for patients each day, you won’t have to worry about it being in a safe environment.”
The statement also noted that the shooting served as just another example of how important paying attention to behavioral and mental health issues are becoming across the country and that it “underscores the importance of greater investments into behavioral health – ultimately providing a path for improving health, elevating hope and advancing healing – for all.”
Here’s the full statement from Ken Haynes, president of the Southeast region for Advocate Health, of which Atrium Health is a part, on Wednesday’s hospital shooting in Atlanta:
“Again today, the people of our nation, and the health care community, specifically, lower their heads – in prayer for lives taken away too soon and in profound disappointment that yet another senseless shooting has taken place. We grieve with and for our fellow health care workers at Midtown Atlanta’s Northside Hospital and we support and appreciate the work of investigators to hold the person responsible accountable for his actions.
“For our Georgia teammates at Atrium Health Floyd, in Rome, and Atrium Health Navicent, in Macon, we recognize this is deeply personal, as it happened so close to your home. Your leadership teams will continue to demand greater protections to ensure that as you care for patients each day, you won’t have to worry about it being in a safe environment.
“While we can’t possibly know yet what the motivation was behind this latest shooting, we do know that the ongoing occurrences of people turning to acts of violence as the answer to their problems underscores the importance of greater investments into behavioral health – ultimately providing a path for improving health, elevating hope and advancing healing – for all.”
