As the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations continues to increase, the Mohawk Valley Health System acknowledges that there are capacity concerns, but the biggest problem they face is staff shortages.
Dr. Kent Hall, the doctor’s chief executive, held a media conference on Thursday.
Currently, there are 211 patients being hospitalized at MVHS.
“We are rapidly approaching capacity within the Mohawk Valley Health System,” Hall said. “We implemented the training plan we developed in the spring and which enabled us to admit far more patients than we would normally do at this time of year.”
Non-essential procedures are suspended from Monday.
“Unless it threatens lives or limbs or is something related to a cancer diagnosis or something like that, we are really not proceeding with the procedures at the moment,” Hall said.
Although MVHS has not reached capacity, it makes a shortage of staff more difficult.
“There was already a shortage of nurses, a shortage of 1.2 million across the country,” Hall said. ‘Add to that, nurses are that people are going to get sick. We currently have a number of staff members working with COVID and are therefore unable to work. ‘
Hall says MVHS can still care for patients, but he said their staff is tired.
A nurse working at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center work, spoke to NEWSChannel2 about her concerns.
“There are rooms and beds available in the hospital, but there are absolutely no staff to take care of them,” Lily Werenczak said. “At medical trainings, the nurses sometimes take up to 14 patients. Would be 1 nurse for 5 patients, so they almost triple what would be considered safe by many standards.”
She says she wants hospital leaders to be more aggressive in their search and recruitment for more nurses and staff members.
“The patients are suffering terribly, it brings tears to my eyes, it brings tears to the eyes of other nurses and health professionals, and it cannot provide the care that the patients deserve,” Werenczak said.
Hall says they do what they can. He says they are working with national staffing facilities to try to recruit more staff members. He also says that is why they are stopping selection procedures.
“We calculate that in doing so we are likely to free up about 28 to 30 nurses and about 12 to 15 clinical assistants who can help the nurses on the floor,” Hall said.