Coronavirus: Are Staten Island hospitals ready for a second wave?

STATEN ISLAND, NY – As the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases increases in Staten Island, district hospitals are working to prepare for a possible second wave of patients infected with the virus.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that Staten Island was on a “high alert” and could see areas entering an orange zone and a red zone this week if the trend of coronavirus cases continues at this rate. In addition, he said hospitals in the district are experiencing capacity problems and are overloaded.

“Staten Island is a serious problem,” the governor said. “Staten Island is also an issue in terms of hospital overloading and we are facing a hospital capacity issue on Staten Island which we will have to deal with over the next few days.”

There are 118 Staten Islanders being treated for COVID-19 at the borough’s three hospitals as of Sunday – an increase of 11 since Saturday.

Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), which has two sites in Ocean Breeze and Prince’s Bay, is caring for 102 patients, an increase of 10 since Saturday. The University of Richmond Medical Center (RUMC) in West Brighton is caring for 16 patients, an increase of one patient since Saturday.

ARE STATEN ISLAND HOSPITALS SEEING INCREASES?

SIUH Executive Director Dr Brahim Ardolic told Advance / SILive.com that there is no doubt that the hospital is seeing a fairly large increase in the number of people with COVID-19.

“I think there is this feeling that the disease is not as bad as it was in the spring and we have heard it so many times,” Ardolic said. “I don’t think there is any doubt that the disease is different now in terms of the number of people who actually die is considerably less. Having said that, however, I think the main reason fewer people die is because the therapies are so much better. So what you are seeing are people coming to the hospital and requiring very long hospital stays with a lot of therapy.

“So the honest answer to the question is, yes, we are seeing a pretty dramatic increase in the number of people representing COVID,” he added.

Ardolic explained that SIUH began November with its number of COVID-19 patients in their 20s. That number is now at 102 on Sunday. And those hospital patients are almost exclusively Staten Island patients, he said.

“It’s definitely, definitely, definitely the repercussions of the lack of social distancing and the lack of mask wearing during Halloween, the first days of November. There is no doubt, ”he said.

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RUMC currently does not see a capacity issue, according to spokesperson Alex Lutz – citing that the hospital has more than 470 beds available in total.

“I can tell you that at the moment it’s not a capacity issue for RUMC,” Lutz said. “At the height of the pandemic in the spring, we saw a very rapid increase in the number of patients admitted.”

The number of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 has fluctuated throughout the month, Lutz said, remaining single digits or teenage most of November. It peaked this month on Nov. 24 with 24 patients, which quickly fell back to adolescents a day later. The number of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) also remained in single digits. Only one patient was in the ICU on Sunday, Lutz said.

“So when you say ‘are we close to capacity? the answer is now ‘no’, ”he said. “That can very easily change if, as the governor pointed out, we don’t see adherence to CDC, state, city guidelines. So we continue to urge everyone to continue to socialize, wash their hands, wear masks – all of those things that have been proven to bring down the virus over the summer.

HOW ARE THEY PREPARING FOR A SECOND WAVE?

RUMC and SIUH have both explained that they are much more prepared in the event of a second wave of coronavirus hitting Staten Island.

“I think we are a lot more prepared,” said Ardolic. “It’s interesting because now we have all of these things ready – it’s just a matter of making sure we have the space and the capacity to take care of the people we need to take care of. But yes, we certainly weren’t taken by surprise about PPE; we weren’t surprised for the supplies or even the staff. We did a lot of preparation so that we could increase considerably if we needed it and actually have staff. At some point, however, you have to be careful and make sure that you have enough space for everyone to take care of everyone.

Hospitals are equipped with enough PPE in the event of a second wave arriving – in line with the governor’s mandate over the summer that hospitals have a 90-day supply of PPE at all times.

“We have this experience now, this flexibility, this versatility that [we need] if we see things starting to increase; we’re already planning for that… we’ve got that spring experience that we can count on – being able to quickly increase bed capacity and everything, ”Lutz said. “We have more than met the mandate that was issued by the governor a few months ago to have at least 90 days of PPE, so we have it, but we are well prepared for any upsurge, resurgence of cases. But as you can see from the numbers I’m giving you, we’re seeing a gradual increase, but we’re not seeing this very rapid uplift in cases.

Doctors, nurses and medical staff also have more experience in dealing with the coronavirus – using the best procedures on patients. The hope, Lutz explained, is to keep the coronavirus count low so that it is manageable.

“… People just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing and then we won’t overload the systems,” Lutz said. “Obviously it has that domino effect that the governor talked about – we don’t want to overburden our health care system, we don’t want people to get sick, we don’t want people to die and we don’t want businesses to shut down. . All of these things are related. “

ARE HOSPITAL BEDS INCREASING?

Lutz explained that it’s a different situation for hospitals now compared to when the pandemic started in the spring. Capacity grew rapidly at RUMC in the spring – when the hospital increased its intensive care beds from 26 to 71 in just two days.

Ardolic told Advance / SILive.com that the SIUH has dramatically increased hospital beds and already increased areas of COVID-19.

“We are now in the process of folding into some of the beds that we have intentionally kept open,” Ardolic said. “In the spring the governor asked us to maintain some ‘extra capacity’, so we never left that. We still had that capacity, so we had additional beds available at the sites in the North and South, which would allow us to expand into those areas and move our patients so that we could handle the push. So, yes, we have opened a fairly large number of beds.

By Tuesday, he said SIUH would have added more than 50 beds to the system and converted additional non-COVID-19 beds to COVID-19 beds.

WHY ARE WE SEEING A RISE?

Ardolic explained that it is important for people to see the growing number of coronaviruses and think about their origin. He credits the rise of the Staten Islanders to rallying together, not wearing masks, and not social distancing during the period from Halloween to Election Day and beyond.

“There was a lot of activity all throughout Staten Island, a lot of gatherings and I don’t think there is any doubt that what we are seeing now is a result of a lot of these meetings,” he said. he declares. “So what I would say is the easiest way to make business disappear, the easiest way to get everyone back to normal life, the easiest way to reopen all businesses, it ‘is that everyone just accepts that we are going to wear masks and that we are going to be careful and smart in mass gatherings.

And now, Ardolic’s priority is to ensure that the hospital can continue to provide the services the community needs if there is a second wave. In the spring, many people stayed away from hospitals because of their fear of contracting the coronavirus, he said.

“I think the concern here now is how do we continue to be able to care for our population and continue to care for this – which will hopefully be a surge in patients in the short term. “, did he declare. “… There is certainly a concern. It’s different than spring … I don’t think we’re in a position to not be able to take care of our community for another six weeks by just shutting down and saying we’re only going to take care of COVID patients. It would be too much harm and too much risk for the community.

Lutz explained that the hospital expects coronavirus cases to increase.

“We were hoping they wouldn’t [increase], but the best thing for RUMC is that since it all started last March… we have never stopped learning and preparing and what should we do next time to make it more effective, what have we -teached us, ”he said. “We have constantly continued to drill, hold virtual or phone meetings, making sure everything is taken into account, including our own internal policies, making sure everyone is wearing masks and limiting the occupancy of the elevators to four people. This is all to ensure that not only are we taking care of the patients, but that we can be there when Staten Island needs us.

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