BUFFALO, N.Y. — To help Erie County Medical Center deal with the impact of COVID-19 on staffing and operations, the United States Military Hospital is sending support.
ECMC announced on Friday that a 20-person clinical Medium Medical Team (MMT) will be deployed to the hospital for an estimated 30 days. The team is expected to arrive this weekend and could be working by next week.
The team is made up of four physicians, 14 nurses, two respiratory techs, and three additional non-clinical administrative support members.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced MRT was coming to EMCM on Dec. 31 when she unveiled the Winter Sugre Plan 2.0.
“On behalf of our dedicated frontline caregivers, we are grateful to Governor Hochul and the federal Department of Defense for this very timely and needed support. We will welcome warmly the members of the Medium Medical Team into our ECMC Family and look forward to their collaboration and participation as we continue to fight against the COVID-19 virus and maintain our high quality care for the residents of Western New York,” according to Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., PhD, who is the President and CEO of Erie County Medical Center Corporation.
Also announced on Friday was a state requirement for health care workers to get a booster shot. According to the governor, New York is the first state in the nation to institute this booster requirement.
"They work with out most vulnerable New Yorkers. We need to make sure that our health care workers are now boosted - not just vaccinated - but they have to be boosted," Hochul said during a COVID-19 briefing in New York City on Friday morning.