ATLANTA — With tears in her eyes, Jennifer Williams took pictures and shared a few laughs with her colleagues at Atlanta Medical Center. The maintenance tech told 11Alive's Karys Belger she worked at the hospital for 20 years and was genuinely upset on her last day of work.
Joined by dozens of other employees, Williams was reminded about the years she spent working after AMC shut down its emergency room at 7 a.m. on Friday.
"It's just a sad, sad moment," she said. Everybody's going a different place."
Williams said she was the only woman on her team but her colleagues were like family to her.
"I'm gonna miss the guys," she said. "I'm gonna miss the doctors of all the people, all the floors, people coming here having babies. This is it."
The hospital began diverting ambulances from the emergency room on Oct. 3. An initial announcement about the emergency room closing came at the end of September. Despite knowing the closure was happening, Williams told 11Alive it was still a lot to process.
In the days since the diversion has taken place, other hospitals like Grady Hospital have been taking on more patients. 11Aive previously interview the head of a Georgia nurses association who explained the impact was already being felt by healthcare workers at other hospitals.
For the employees at AMC who were leaving on Friday, there was still lingering concern about what would happen to the people in the community who are dependent on AMC for care.
"A lot of people here in the area are going to go without," Kelly Gadson told 11Alive.
Gadson is a cardiovascular technician who began working at AMC after being transferred when AMC South closed it's emergency room.
He tells 11Alive he's been transferred to another facility in Cobb County but he is still concerned about the people he used to help treat.