The outside of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst on Monday night stands in stark contrast to the scene outside the facility just months ago, which made national headlines.
The hospital was, for a time, at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the city.
First, long lines formed outside, first with people waiting to be tested for COVID-19, then with people seeking treatment for the virus.
Hospital officials say they did their best to manage the onslaught of patients and deaths during the spring, but had to do a lot of troubleshooting on the fly.
“We moved 850 patients, COVID-positive patients, across our system to level the load patients,” said Dr. Eric Wei, interim CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst.
A plan to balance the load is one just one of the things Governor Andrew Cuomo now wants all New York hospitals to have. Amid a rise in covid hospitalizations upstate, he wants to ensure everyone has a plan to ensure hospitals aren’t overrun.
Wei said NYC Health + Hospitals Elmhurst has been fine-tuning their procedures since the summer and are now using electronic health records to help in the process.
“Now, we’ve basically created a way for providers daily on their rounds to be able to enter the information that we need to be able to have a live report that we are working off of to move,” he said.
He said they’ve also already addressed two other mandates handed down by the governor Monday. That includes securing adequate personal protective equipment for workers and coming up with plans to address any staffing issues that might arise.
Rep. Grace Meng of Queens is confident they’re ready, and says Elmhurst alone has secured around $166 million in coronavirus relief funding from the federal government.
“They tell me that they are three months out in terms of having PPE," Meng said. "Elmhurst and Queens hospitals are tremendously respected and trusted by the community, which is part of the reason why they had such an influx of patients.”
But both Meng and others say whether local hospitals remain prepared depends on continuing federal support. Another component will be in prevention and trying to keep transmission levels low.
“The best way to be ready is to prevent," said Dr. Miguel Hernandez, chairman of the Dominican Medical Association of New York. "Hospital staff should start having meetings for this purpose, to try and educate the staff and the population.”