Thomas Hughes “The march of the coronavirus across New York State continues.”
–Gov. Cuomo, March 31, 2020
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today the formation of a new medical coordinating team that will be tasked with helping state hospitals manage, coordinate, share, and move resources to the most needed locations. The Central Coordinating Team primarily joins the state’s private and public hospital networks into a more cohesive, centrally managed entity.
Previously, even as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, the hospitals operated separately, with private hospitals all operating on their own, and public hospitals in a loosely managed network that lacked a coordinating structure to enable the current triage style movement of supplies.
The team and New York officials are still preparing for the apex of cases in the state, as the number of hospitalizations continued to rise on the last day of March, including ICU admissions, which topped 2,700 on Tuesday. That represented about 1 out of every 4 patients admitted to a hospital. The intensive care numbers continued to rise even as the president said last week that he doubted the number of ventilators New York officials had projected as necessary.
Procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical workers, including N95 masks, face shields, and gloves, along with a ventilator shortage, remains an issue, and Gov. Cuomo reiterated his frustration with the bidding process for acquiring PPE today. Many governors across the US have voiced similar frustration at the lack of a central buyer, the federal government, with FEMA instead making its own bids in the process, rather than on behalf of the states. That left a system with many more desperate bidders, leaving states to compete against each other for supplies while simultaneously driving up the prices of such items by multiples.
In New York, the new Central Coordinating Team will begin the task of managing the supplies the state does currently have, as well as the movement of patients from stressed locations to less occupied hospitals. The team is led by the State Department of Health, and is made up of officials from the Westchester, New York City, and Long Island healthcare systems, along with the Greater New York Hospital Association, and the Healthcare Association of New York State. FEMA will also coordinate with the team which will also facilitate sharing of information and staff between state hospitals.
The governor also announced the launch of an online portal, which will allow the Coordinating Team to tap into the more than 80,000 medical professionals who have volunteered to join the workforce during the pandemic.
Elmhurst Hospital, in Queens, is a priority for the Team, as the hospital remains near capacity. Deaths in the state increased by more than 300 from the previous day, bringing the total to more than 1,500.
“As we continue to battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have two missions: preparing our hospital system so it is not overwhelmed when the apex of the curve hits, and ensuring people stay home so they don’t get the virus in the first place,” Cuomo said.
