STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As confirmed coronavirus cases pass the 1,000 mark on Staten Island, and hospitals across the city brace for an influx of patients, the borough’s two private hospitals say they will soon have at least 829 combined ICU and general hospital beds.
Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH) and Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) both say they have ramped up their capacity in recent days as they ready to serve Staten Islanders during the most severe part of outbreak.
“We’re going to be taking care of that subset of people that are the most sick,” said SIUH’s Executive Director Dr. Brahim Ardolic. “As you test more people, you’re going to test more positives, and we expect to see more people coming into the hospital, but that’s going to be dependent on how many people are testing positive.”
“We’ve done everything in our power to plan for this and to actually increase the number of patients that we can actually see, and I do believe that we can meet the needs of this community, with help,” Ardolic continued.
At SIUH, Ardolic said the hospital has the ability to double its current 72 ICU bed capacity and increase its 250 general hospital beds by 50% at the moment, for a total of 519 beds.
And at RUMC, the hospital is working to significantly increase its critical care -- or ICU beds -- from 26 to 71. The hospital is also working to ramp up its medical surge beds capacity from 128 to 239 general hospital beds, for a total of 310 beds.
When done expanding their capacity, the two hospitals together will have 829 beds.
CONTINGENCY PLANS?
There were 112 confirmed coronavirus patients hospitalized in the borough’s two hospitals as of Tuesday.
Of the 28 patients being treated for the virus at RUMC, the hospital said 5 were in the ICU. SIUH was unable to provide a breakdown of the number of general hospital patients versus ICU patients but said 67 people are hospitalized at its Ocean Breeze campus and another 17 at its Prince’s Bay campus.
The hospitals and elected officials are working to keep Staten Island patients on the borough to seek treatment for as long as they can, but they say contingency plans are in place if more space — beyond the 829 beds — is needed during the outbreak.
The Advance/SILive.com reported on Wednesday that The College of Staten Island (CSI) in Willowbrook is vacating its dorm buildings for the possibility that they may need to be used as temporary medical facilities, according to an email to members of the CSI community.
There will also be pop-up hospitals available to New York City patients, like the naval hospital ship and the Javits Center field hospital. But, so far, there are no plans on how to get Staten Islanders to those facilities -- or the city’s public hospital system -- in the event the borough’s treatment capacity is reached.
”We have not had those conversations with anyone in the city or the state level at this point," Borough President James Oddo said of discussions around how to get Staten Islanders to other medical facilities if needed. “No one has raised the notion of diversion yet.”
The city’s Health Department also did not respond to request for comment when asked if such a plan was in place for the only borough without a public hospital.
HOSPITALS ADD BEDS, WHEREVER THEY CAN
Overcrowded hospitals in Italy filled with sick patients, and doctors forced to choose who to save and let fend for themselves, has served as a cautionary tale for U.S. hospitals, as the coronavirus has made its way across the country with New York City at the epicenter of the crisis.
In just 16 days, Staten Island has gone from its first confirmed coronavirus case to 1,084 cases by March 25. As of Wednesday, the Island has seen 21 coronavirus related deaths.
On Wednesday morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the state stood at 30,811, including 17,856 cases in New York City alone.
In recent days, Cuomo has said the state will need to go from its current 53,000 hospital beds and 3,000 ICU beds up to 140,000 hospital beds, 40,000 ICU beds, and provide a minimum of 30,000 ventilators to respond to the outbreak.
On Tuesday, Cuomo ordered hospitals to increase their capacity by 50% to accommodate more coronavirus patients.
“We are always prepared and we will do whatever it takes to meet the demand," RUMC’s President and CEO Dr. Daniel Messina, said Wednesday. “We are creating all of these contingency plans right now, so we have the ability to come close to almost doubling our existing bed capacity today.”
SIUH and RUMC said they are on their way to meeting the governor’s demands by doing everything from putting unused hospital beds and units back into service, to turning pre- and post-operation rooms into areas where more hospital beds can be placed.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has avoided talking about New York City’s overall hospital capacity and exactly how much it would need to increase to meet the demands of the outbreak because he cautioned: “numbers move constantly and the projections are constantly updated.”
VENTILATOR SHORTAGE COULD BE CRITICAL
Although guarded on the question of hospital capacity, the mayor has been vocal in the push to get the city more ventilators. De Blasio said the city will need at least 15,000 ventilators during the outbreak -- 2,000 of which the federal government will give to New York City as part of the 4,000 it plans to give the state.
Neither of Staten Island’s hospitals could say exactly how many ventilators they currently have on hand.
RUMC is in the process of trying to get at least 45 more ventilators to the hospital from the state and the Greater New York Hospital Association, Messina said.
SIUH is also trying to secure between 45 to 50 more ventilators and has already put in an order and are expecting a delivery, Ardolic said.
“We’ve never gone to not having a supply of ventilators available, we’ve never dipped down to the point where we didn’t have multiple ventilators available for people who were coming through the door,” Ardolic said.
RUMC currently has one medical tent it can use during surge periods for hospital staff to assess non-COVID patients. The hospital also has another tent for future use. SIUH is not currently using medical tents.
OFFICIALS SEEK ADDITIONAL SPACE
Oddo and Rep. Max Rose have been working to find additional space for staff, supplies and medical care if needed.
Oddo said he has been looking for sites around the borough that can be used for storage, supplies and auxiliary medical facilities. He said Borough Hall is currently looking at sites like the Ocean Breeze indoor track facility as well as available space by Empire Outlets.
Meanwhile, Rose was vocal in getting the Trump administration to deploy the 1,000-bed naval hospital ship to the New York Harbor.
Rose also said he is working to try to deploy a mobile hospital unit to the Brooklyn Veterans Affairs parking lot in South Brooklyn, increase its staff there, and try to open up the hospital to non-COVID patients.
“Whether it’s RUMC or SIUH, or any other hospital in New York City, there’s no way shape or form where we can be satisfied with the status quo," Rose said. “We have to increase capacity for non-COVID patients, and we have to increase capacity for COVID patients.”
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