Hospitals face uncertain times

ELIZABETHTOWN - Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Schuylerville) held a working group call with hospital leaders throughout the region, allowing them to voice their concerns in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. While each hospital may have its unique set of challenges, one unites them all – an unprecedented budget shortfall. As hospitals have been forced to abandon their greatest source of revenue, elective surgeries, hospitals throughout the North Country agree that the present situation simply isn't sustainable without additional federal assistance. "It is challenging for our North County hospitals to balance their budgets and [their] tough financial decisions in a regular year, let alone a year like this," Stefanik said during her introduction. "We know that there are significant fiscal challenges that you all are facing." While NY-21 hospitals and community health centers have seen $33 million in federal funding – for many hospitals it simply just isn't enough. "One of the challenges that I've seen is how HHS made that calculation was very much based upon data in the past and not the challenges and circumstances of today," she said. UVM Network – Elizabethtown Community Hospital and CVPH President John Remillard of Elizabethtown Hospital said business leaders are looking to these hospitals to test their employees as the economy slowly ramps up. "They're all anxious to open, and a couple of them asked if we could test their employees - so that they would feel comfortable having their employees come back to work," he said. "And we would like to do that. We've opened up some of that testing that we're able to do, but we don't have the supplies that we would need to do the widespread testing for businesses and their employees." Both CVPH and Elizabethtown have benefited from increased federally funding, however Remillard added that they still need more. Budget shortfalls remain a dark cloud over the facilities as elective surgeries have been put on hold due to the lag in testing supplies. Tuesday night CVPH saw a glimmer of hope as the state approved their waiver allowing them to finally resume elective surgeries. ADIRONDACK HEALTH President and CEO of Adirondack Health Sylvia Getman said there is a triple threat for her hospital: ending elective surgeries, preparing for a 50 % increase in capacity and at the same time not seeing a huge surge in COVID-19 cases. "We have not, in fact, felt the surge. Certainly we have a steady number of positive COVID patients that we are treating and testing in our organization, but not the surge level that would bring additional volume," she said. "So, it has been remarkably challenging and dynamic for us." The good news, she said, is that the COVID cases remain low. However, three areas of concern are the prisons, long-term care facilities and Surmount in Tupper Lake. "I'm very pleased to report that as of today, we are able to test all of our residents at Mercy Living Center in Tupper Lake, and we are starting to test all of our staff there as well," Getman said. While positive cases continue throughout the Ray Brook federal prison, Getman said so far it has been manageable. When tourism once again resumes, however, it will bring with it a new level of uncertainty. "Our crystal ball here is really a bowling ball. It's very opaque," Getman said. Fortunately, they have been able to resume elective surgeries and open a number of their outpatient clinics. Still, she said not all procedures have resumed, including their dental, ear, nose and throat services. "We've been working with some great partners, The Trudeau Institute has been an absolute blessing for us," Getman said. "They've been able to reprocess some of our PPE – our N95 and surgical masks. 95 % of our N95 masks are now able to be reprocessed through that organization, which has been literally a lifesaver." Community Health Center of the North Country Spokesman for the Community Health Center of the North County Ray Babowicz echoed the other hospitals – saying that budget woes led to approximately 10 % of their staff being either laid off or furloughed. Babowicz also pointed to the neglected needs of those suffering mental, developmental or substance abuse issues in the midst of the pandemic. "[Let's] not forget two very important segments of the population that may be hurting the most through this, and that would be people with behavioral and substance use challenges," Babowicz said. "Nobody is enjoying the isolation; nobody needs to be isolated like that. But these are the people that can deal with the isolation the least out of all of us." Babowicz said that federally these groups have not received the type of funding and care they require, and he implored Stefanik to help bring funding to the region to deal with the increased medical needs by those patients.

Signup for our newsletter

Hospitals face uncertain times

COMPANY

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

SUBMISSION FORMS

BEYOND THE NEWS