Governor Kathy Hochul announced Saturday that Northwell Health, New York State’s largest healthcare system, dispatched a team of trained nurses to western New York to assist two hospitals facing an increase in COVID-19 infections.
The team of Northwell of 16 clinical professionals and two team leaders, including intensive care, emergency departments, and medical-surgical nurses, were dispatched to the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo and Strong Memorial Hospital from the University of Rochester in Rochester on December 11. The two-week mission comes as the entire state sees an increase in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
Tom Quatroche, executive director of Erie County Medical Center, said nurses arrive when the 573-bed hospital deals with extremely high patient volumes and staff shortages.
Northwell officials said they received help from other health systems when New York City and Long Island were invaded by virus cases at the start of the pandemic.
“Tackling the winter surge in cases requires a statewide team effort from partners across New York State,” said Governor Hochul. “I want to thank Northwell Health for answering the call to action and partnering with us to dispatch a team of exceptionally skilled nurses who will increase the hospital’s capacity and help us reduce the numbers in Western New York. “
Northwell employs nearly 19,000 nurses across its 22 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient facilities, including the team of nurses who volunteered for the mission to New York’s latest COVID-19 hotspot. The health system will continue to track patient volume and staffing needs internally as it extends aid elsewhere.
“We offered to send nurses there after hearing about the staff shortages in the region and seeing COVID-19 cases peak there,” said Northwell President and CEO Michael Dowling. “We remember when the pandemic hit us the hardest and we were at our worst.”
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