UHS Wilson hospital set to suspend elective surgeries to comply with state COVID order
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UHS Wilson Medical Center in Broome County is among 37 hospitals in New York expected to halt elective health care to free up beds to handle surging COVID-19 cases under a state order taking effect Friday.
The move to temporarily suspend some hospitals' elective care, which spans from hip replacements to preventive screenings for diseases like cancer, is part of an executive order issued last week by Gov. Kathy Hochul. It applies to hospitals operating at below 10% staffed bed capacity.
Designated as a 24-hour trauma, stroke and chest pain center, UHS Wilson Medical Center is a 280-bed medical clinic in Johnson City. UHS is a network of hospitals, urgent care clinics, and specialty medical service facilities in the Southern Tier.
UHS Wilson Medical Center did not comment by presstime Wednesday.
Broome County Executive Jason T. Garnar responded with a renewed call for residents to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and follow health precautions.
"Our hospitals are filling up and we’ll need every bed and worker we can spare," Garnar said. "It’s more important than ever that everyone get vaccinated, get boosted and mask up. These preventative measures will help save lives."
Two other hospitals in the Southern Tier, St. James in Hornell and UHS Delaware Valley in Walton, are on the list of facilities due to suspend elective care, according to the state Department of Health.
Based on state data and the concerns expressed by healthcare leaders across New York, the list of facilities required to suspend elective surgeries could grow as hospitals struggle with staffing shortages and waves of COVID-19 patients.
The renewed pandemic threat is heightened across upstate counties, as hospitals from Rochester to Utica to Johnson City carry an outsized share of the more than 2,900 people hospitalized due to COVID statewide, records show.
“COVID hospitalizations are trending upward. The number of beds is going downward and that's a real problem for us,” Hochul said Monday during a briefing.
The executive order will be reassessed on Jan. 15. Hochul said hospitals that halt elective care could resume it before that date if they boost capacity.
Since early August, hospitals in New York have also lost about 4% of bed capacity, or about 1,580 beds. About 70% of the bed reductions hit upstate communities where comparatively lower vaccination rates, in part, fueled COVID hospitalizations, which were up 150% during the same span, Hochul added.
Hospital leaders, however, asserted bed capacity problems also stemmed from more than 33,000 medical workers leaving jobs due to Hochul’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, as well as long-standing staffing shortages worsened by the pandemic.
The list of hospitals expected to stop elective care also includes six in the Finger Lakes.
They are:
F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua
Geneva General Hospital
Highland Hospital in Rochester
Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester
Unity Hospital in Rochester
Wyoming County Community Hospital in Warsaw
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: UHS Wilson to suspend elective surgeries to comply with COVID order
