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April 11, 2020
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• EDITION •
North Country hospitals complete surge capacity plans State directive looked for 50 percent capacity increase, 100 percent if attainable By Kim Dedam, Alina Walentowicz, Laurel Caroll STAFF WRITERS
NORTHERN NEW YORK | Area hospitals have responded to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order for bed expansion. The state looked for every hospital to increase available beds by 50 percent, shifting that goal up to 100 percent where possible.
ADIRONDACK HEALTH
At Adirondack Health, spokesman Matt Scollin said they have achieved the Department of Health measure for surge capacity for both acute care and intensive care unit beds. Adirondack Medical Center built capacity from 95 certified beds to 145. They have 8 ICU beds with plans in place, Scollin said, to get to 12. The hospital in Saranac Lake has nine ventilators. In addition to in-hospital room, Adirondack Health is currently reviewing sites for off-site care. “We have looked at three locations that could be utilized for non-COVID patients,” Scollin said. “But we’ve made no decision yet, so we are not naming the sites. Staffing for the extra beds and offsite beds is also in the works.” Adirondack Health is paying particular attention to local demographics, given the elderly demographic in Essex County with 5 percent more people age 65 and older than the rest of the state. An unusual demand is also looking to Adirondack Health for childbirth options. Expectant parents from outside the region have approached the hospital looking to deliver their
new babies at the Stafford New Life Center, a wing of Adirondack Medical Center dedicated specifically for labor and delivery. “We have had five requests, and there are likely going to be more, from moms in their third trimester,” Scollin said, adding that the inquiry is welcome. “It is what we do.” Coordination between hospital systems, administrators and staff throughout the North Country is ongoing, Scollin said, as area hospitals pool resources, monitor data and supplies. “It really has been something to see. Our communities can be assured we are working extremely well together on their behalf.” More information available at www.adirondackhealth.org.
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT (UVM) HEALTH NETWORK, ELIZABETHTOWN COMMUNITY HOSPITAL (ECH)
Expansion for beds is in place at ECH, with a plan submitted to the state’s Department of Health (DOH) to include 13 beds split between the Elizabethtown and Ticonderoga campuses. More information available at www.ech.org.
UVM HEALTH NETWORK, CHAMPLAIN VALLEY PHYSICIANS HOSPITAL (CVPH), PLATTSBURGH
CVPH now has two intensive care units: one for COVID-19 or “suspected” COVID-19 patients; one for non-COVID-19 patients. The hospital added a supplemental, tented outdoor ER for patients with respiratory illnesses. “We are planning to be able to ventilate up to as many as thirty [ICU beds],” said Dr. Wouter Rietsema, MD, VP of Population and Information Services, an infectious disease physician at CVPH. Originally at 14, the hospital’s surge capacity for ICU beds has now reached 28, but Dr. Rietsema said appropriately trained staff are just as needed as the beds themselves,
with the expectation that current staff members could fall ill. “We’ve started training certain people for other work within the hospital so that we can meet our surge plans.” Officials are discussing overflow bed options and circumstances, should the hospital require support. Some nearby hotels are partnering w ith Clinton Count y Health Department (CCHD) and Department of Social Services (DSS) to provide care and housing resources in an overflow situation, with particular attention to populations experiencing homelessness. DSS maintains housing partnerships with a number of area hotels and motels. Should a positive test occur, individuals are “housed in a location specified by CCHD”, according to Area 9 County Legislator Christopher Rosenquest (D), also legislative liaison to the area business community. “CCHD has contracts with America’s Best, the Villa and the Quality Inn to house people confi rmed positive to have COVID-19 and who also don’t have any other place to isolate and quarantine.” He said in these hotels “the individual rooms are set up such that the air is circulated for that room itself and not throughout the entire facility.” Mostly-empty SUNY Plattsburgh has ramped up preparations within the college’s housing facilities, according to a student-newspaper article detailing arrangements and procedures for remaining on-campus students, now totalling less than 200. “We will support any request from UVM-CVPH and the county health department on use of campus facilities,” said University Police Director of Emergency Management Michael Caraballo. “In terms of preparation, we are simply clearing space now that most students have left and there may be a need. There are no planned uses at the moment.” More information available at www.cvph.org.
GLENS FALLS HOSPITAL (GFH)
GFH is re-opening previously
Wilmington’s special Easter-time guest
A large rabbit with big ears arrived in Wilmington to make a list, shuffle some maps, and prepare a special Easter treat for area children and their parents. The Easter Bunny has apparently come up with a plan to tour around town this Sunday, delivering some good “socially distant” Easter cheer. Photos courtesy Town of Wilmington
closed units and increasing staffing as needed in an effort to accommodate a 54% increase in beds, according to VP of Hospital and Community Engagement F. Raymond Agnew, CFRE. The hospital’s visitor policy has been updated to include: “Due to confirmed cases of COVID-19 regionally, and out of an abundance of caution and care for our community, Glens Falls Hospital will suspend ALL routine visitation to our patients effective immediately.” Beyond this, visitors under 16 are not allowed. Expecting mothers in the area who prepare to give birth during this time will be granted one visitor, as an exception to the policy. Birth parents are allowed to visit the Special Care Nursery, but must “remain in the room for the duration of the visit” policy says. More information available at www.glensfallshospital.org.
SURGE CAPACITY
Cuomo’s directive to expand hospital capacity was issued March
23 with a clause that would allow the state to suspend or revoke the operating certificate “of any general hospital should they be unable to meet the requirements of the necessary capacity directives.” The order gave permission for the state Department of Health to commandeer any hospital found out of compliance, and to “appoint a receiver to continue the operations on 24 hours’ notice to the current operator, in order to preserve the life, health and safety of the people of the State of New York.” Cuomo has said in his daily Coronavirus updates that all hospitals in the state have responded. The first case of COVID-19 was reported in New York State on March 1. By April 1, there were 83,889 cases with 1,941 resulting in death. In the North Country, Saratoga County is seeing a steep increase in COVID-19 cases, with 131 on April 1, including 14 new from the day before, according to Saratoga County’s Department of Public Health. Of the 131 COVID+ individuals in Saratoga County, 18 are in a hospital. ■
ESSEX COUNTY BRACES FOR WHAT’S NEXT
Virus impacting health, budgets, attitudes By Tim Rowland STAFF WRITER
ELIZABETHTOWN | Essex County government braced for both the knowns and the unknowns this week as a deadly outbreak of COVID-19 marched slowly but steadily from the cities toward the North Country, leaving officials and residents, in popular coronavirus parlance, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. As of the weekend there had been 14 confirmed cases of COVID-19, a number that health officials warned may be less reflective of the facts and more reflective of the lack of available testing. County supervisors have been putting out fires large and small, in anticipation of the
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since been alleviated with the arrival of ventilators in New York City from China and Oregon. But it’s rekindled a longstanding “us versus them” regionalism that various officials were trying to beat down. Wilmington Supervisor Roy Holzer, in a community email, reminded residents that New York City had sent much-needed emergency help to the North Country during the 1998 ice storm. “Their passion for helping us left a lasting impression on me,” Holzer wrote. “We worked, we ate and we got through things together working as New Yorkers. Back then there was no downstate, no upstate. We were together then as we should be now.” But he also asked that downstaters be considerate of the Adirondacks’ situation, with its limited resources. Willie Janeway, executive director of the Adirondack Council, agreed that vacationers should understand that the North Country’s safety net is already threadbare, lacking extensive health-care infrastructure, rangers
and first responders. But he said the communities can still be welcoming and willing to support other parts of the state. “It is understandable for people to be worried, Hathaway said in an op ed. “That shouldn’t lead to panic or distrust of our neighbors or strangers. As the phrase ‘global pandemic’ suggests, there are no places that are 100% safe. Yet, no place in New York should feel defenseless either.” After a multiple week hiatus, the Essex County supervisors met Monday, passing a number of housekeeping resolutions, and giving final approval to a 2% increase in the county bed tax. Ironically, it is a longplanned revenue stream that will do little good in the short run, as the virus has been a weighty drag on traveling. County and town budgets will also have to be reworked to reflect a loss of revenue in other areas as well, most notably the sales tax. “This year we’re going to see some real shortfalls,” Gillilland said. ■
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pandemic, from breaking up congregations at a Moriah hot dog stand to canceling parades to warning tourists and vacationers to stay away because of a lack of large-scale emergency and health-care services. Supervisors even had to ask the grisly question of whether the Lake Placid ice rink could serve as cold storage if local morgues are overrun. Supervisor Chairman Shaun Gillilland said he’s seen nothing like this in all his years of naval and government service. “A lot of people are very nervous. They’re dealing with fear and watching the television news — there are additional stresses that we’re trying to help people deal with,” he said. Supervisors have reported that some of their constituents are concerned that infected people from the city will be brought to local spaces for care. Others, including Rep. Elise Stefanik have been critical of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to seize upstate ventilators for now, and then return them, and more, when the disease’s apex moves north. That need has