'This is not sustainable'
The Omicron wave has receded in New York, but hospitals — particularly serving rural upstate areas —expect to stay in crisis mode for the foreseeable future because of persistent staffing shortages and the end of pandemic-related support they have been using as a crutch.
I traveled to Utica recently and filed this dispatch for The Wall Street Journal about the St. Luke’s hospital campus of Mohawk Valley Health System. Signs of the stress abound: Emergency-room wait times are up, staffed beds are down and patients are being transferred hours away for treatments such as gastrointestinal care that previously were offered on-site. The hospital’s nursing home is reliant upon the National Guard to keep its doors open.
To make up for lost staff, the hospital has turned to traveling nurses — which can cost far more per hour. That was possible in the last two years with $38 million in emergency Covid aid for the system, which serves this city of around 60,000 between the Adirondacks and the mill towns of the Erie Canal. That money’s all been spent.
“This is not sustainable,” MVHS chief executive Darlene Stromstad told me in an interview.
You don’t need me to tell you that the labor market is tight everywhere, including the health care sector. A national survey found vacancy rates for nurses around 10%, and a coalition of upstate New York hospitals recently reported a 25% nurse vacancy rate.
My colleague Kris Maher found a similar situation when he visited Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. It currently has enough staff to cover 370 beds; it is licensed for 522.
“I think people are under the misconception that because Covid has peaked and it’s on the downturn that staffing issues will go away,” said Louise Dobbins, who monitors capacity for Allegheny’s parent organization. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
This week will mark two years since the broad shutdowns in response to the first U.S. wave of the coronavirus. Its toll can be measured in lost lives and lost moments, and also in the vast changes to how we work, shop, learn and interact with friends and family. Even as rules and restrictions go away, things are not snapping back to normal — in the health care sector and beyond.
“We’re forever changed, so I have a problem with entities giving the impression that, OK, in a couple months we'll be fine — you’ll go back to living your lives as usual,” Dr. Brenda Robinson, founder and CEO of the Black Nurses Coalition, an Albany-based organization fighting health care disparities, told Albany Times Union reporter Bethany Bump.
“Maybe our grandchildren may get to that, I don't know, but right now, I don't think that is the safest message to get. Because we are still in a pandemic, and we still have a lot of barriers and hurdles to get over,” Dr. Robinson said.
COMING UP: New York legislators start budget talks in earnest. People will wear green and summon their Irish heritage, real or stretched. I will eat half my body weight in soda bread.
A QUESTION: What is the largest hospital system in New York?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Lots of interesting responses from people about masks. I went to church today, and it was about 60-40 of people (like me) wearing masks. We’ll see how that shifts over time!