BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul announced an executive order that would halt elective surgeries for short-staffed hospitals in New York State.
During a press conference Monday, Hochul explained that a short-staffed hospital has less than 10% of staffed beds available. She said there are about 30 hospitals statewide that meet that criteria.
Right now, 2 On Your Side is only aware of Erie County Medical Center meeting that criteria. The hospital halted elective surgeries in September.
On Sunday, a spokesperson said ECMC is nearly full. It is licensed for 573 beds; 552 are currently filled. COVID patients are at 68, a number that has risen in recent days, but is still just 12% of all occupied ECMC beds.
In Erie County, Kaleida Health and Catholic Health have both updated visitation policies but have not announced any changes to elective surgeries at this point.
The executive order takes effect on December 3 and will be reassessed starting January 15. If a hospital can hire supplemental staff and increase capacity, the hospital can be reevaluated to resume elective procedures at any time.
While trying to determine what could be causing the hospital capacity problem, Hochul said one reason is a lack of staffing in nursing homes and other post-acute care facilities.
“One of the reasons we still have additional individuals in hospitals, non-COVID ready to be discharged is because nursing homes don’t have the staff to take them, I was just on the phone with an institution in Buffalo that said I could release 50 people right now and that would take a lot of pressure off of them but they don’t have a nursing home to go to,” said Hochul.
On Monday, she announced she will be deploying New York National Guard members who are certified Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) to assist New York nursing homes. She also said she has asked hospitals downstate not experiencing capacity issues to shift personnel upstate to assist what is being called “hot spot areas” in terms of hospital capacity.
The Western New York region has 11% of the region’s total hospital beds available which is the fourth lowest in the state.