Syracuse, N.Y. — Last August, Michele Pedicone left her job as a respiratory care therapist in Seattle to start a new role as a teacher at Upstate Medical University.
But she’ll be at patients’ bedsides again soon, helping Central New York hospitals that could be inundated with patients sickened by the novel coronavirus.
“It’s a deep calling right now to go out and help where I can best be used,” said Pedicone, 54, director of clinical education in Upstate’s respiratory therapy education department. “It’s in my heart.”
Pedicone is among many former and retired doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and other medical professionals who have told local hospitals they’re willing to return to the front lines to meet the demand if the number of coronavirus patients spikes.
Hospitals are contacting former staff members, taking down the numbers of health professionals who are calling in, and even putting requests on social media asking professionals to enlist in what Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called a war on the virus.
“These are unprecedented times, and we’re not really sure what to expect,” said registered nurse Suzanne Talarico, manager of talent acquisition at St. Joseph’s Health in Syracuse. “We’re being as prepared as we can.”
Cuomo has been warning for a week about increasing the number of hospital beds to treat COVID-19 patients — about 15 to 20% of whom require hospitalization — and the specialized ventilators to keep alive the sickest patients. Central New York could need an additional 1,000 beds, based on projections; about half of those would be “critical care” beds for the sickest patients. Beds and ventilators are useless without the round-the-clock staff needed to care for sick patients, though, so respiratory care therapists like Pedicone are especially in demand.
The state Department of Health has created a website seeking health professionals “to treat seriously ill coronavirus patients, including those that may need to be intubated.” The health department promises to help professionals re-obtain certification in their specialty if those certifications have lapsed.
The department did not respond to Syracuse.com’s request for information, including how many people have signed up and from what specialties. Cuomo said at his briefing today that 30,000 professionals had responded statewide.
Local hospitals have doctors and nurses on stand-by in case of emergencies, and others who work on a per-diem basis who could be called to work more often. Some professionals who return to the workforce temporarily might not deal directly with the coronavirus patients, but would “backfill” on patients with lesser disorders.
“If somebody has a sore throat, they could pitch in and take a throat culture, or they could sew up a laceration," said Dr. Art Fougner, a Long Island physician who is president of the New York State Medical Society. "They wouldn’t do any heavy lifting, but they could free up the doctors for the most serious stuff.”
St. Joseph’s would deploy returning professionals where they would do the most good, Talarico said.
“Whatever they’re willing to do, whatever their skill set is, we’ll be flexible and agile as the needs present,” she said. “If someone has acute care or ICU experience, and they’re certified and competent to do that, that would be great.”
As the potential for local hospitals to be overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic became clearer recently, retired doctor Pamela Horst called up her old employer, St. Joseph’s Health, to make herself available.
“I said I’d be willing to volunteer in any capacity that they saw a need,” said Horst, 69, who spent much of her medical career in family medicine and palliative care, and was a professor of family medicine at Upstate Medical University. “If the skill I have is needed, I would like to support the community. I think that’s part of being a part of a civil society and taking care of our neighbors.”
On Sunday, St. Joseph’s called Horst to see when she could start and what role she might play.
Returning professionals say they know the risk that they could be infected with the virus, especially if there are shortages of masks and other protective equipment, as there has been in other areas. In Italy, about 8% of all those infected have been health care workers.
Pedicone, who has a 17-year-old son, says she’s aware of the risk, but worked in the field long enough to know how to protect herself. And she just had a physical, when her doctor told her she was “surprisingly healthy.”
“I’m a single mom who just moved to the area without a whole lot of resources, but my son knows it’s important,” she said. “We had big talk about it, and he said, ‘You can do it as long as you don’t get sick.’"
Talarico said it’s not clear how many, if any, additional health professionals would be needed, or when.
“How many sick are we going to take in? Are any of our staff going to get ill?” she asked. “We’re trying to plan for a lot of different contingencies.”
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