NYC Hospitals Suspend Elective Surgeries Amid Coronavirus Surge

NEW YORK CITY — A feared surge of coronavirus patients prompted the city’s Health + Hospitals system to stop elective surgeries in order to save space.

H+H halted elective surgeries this week amid growing worries about growing numbers of COVID-19 patients and a state directive to increase hospital capacity, said CEO Mitchell Katz on Thursday.

“We’re doing the necessary surgeries and the emergency surgeries, but we have — consistent to the governor’s request — we have canceled elective procedures and we have the extra 25 percent capacity the state has asked us for,” he said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently unveiled a set of directives to ensure hospital systems manage the number of patients they have so they’re not overwhelmed.

That’s what happened to Elmhurst Hospital — the epicenter of the epicenter, as Mayor Bill de Blasio put it — in the pandemic’s early days, Katz said.

He said the hospital was trusted by people in the community so they went there when they fell ill with COVID-19. Unfortunately, it was too much too quick and the hospital nearly burst at the seams.

Hospitals systems now more readily share patients in order to make sure COVID-19 surges don’t overwhelm facilities.

H+H has moved 100 patients to other hospitals to make sure they have reserve beds, Katz said. The system is currently at about 65 percent capacity in its ICUs and regular beds, he said.

Suspending elective surgeries frees up more space, he said.

“They were canceled as of Tuesday of this week,” he said.