The Mount Sinai system took several measures to protect patients and hospital staff
The public health crisis that has caused the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the Big Apple has not only forced the corganization of public hospitals in the city NYC Health + Hospitals to take drastic measures, but has also forced large private health systems like the Mount sinai to ban patient visits and cancel medical appointments.
This was reported on Tuesday by the ‘Mount Sinai Health System’, announcing that the measures seek not only to protect patients, but also medical personnel, nurses, and other hospital workers.
The extraordinary precautionary measures that seek to stop the spread of COVID-19 will be applied at all Mount Sinai facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn Y Queens, as well as in outpatient centers that are also part of this hospital system.
“Since this Tuesday visits are prohibited in the entire health system of the Mount sinai due to the coronavirus outbreak ”, said the hospital network in a statement, adding that they are “significantly restricting visitor access.”
Mount sinai He explained that, with some exceptions, the restrictions will apply to visits in emergency rooms, hospital units, outpatient sites and other facilities.
And about the exceptions, he specified that only one healthy person will be allowed to visit in the following cases: the partner of a woman in a delivery and maternity ward, a single relative at a time patient in the intensive care unit and one parent at a time pediatric intensive care center. All those visitors must be 15 years or older and show no signs of the coronavirus, such as fever or cough.
But in addition to restricting visits to patients in hospitals, another of the measures taken by this hospital center was the cancellation of medical appointments that do not require emergencies, and can be postponed until later when the emergency improves.
The newspaper met a Venezuelan patient who on Monday night received multiple text messages from Mount Sinai’s auto system canceling appointments scheduled in the next days. One was with a sports medicine doctor this Wednesday, March 18, and another scheduled for April 4 with a spinal specialist. Both offices told her to call in late April to reschedule appointments.
Concern in all hospitals
The measures announced by this massive hospital system follow a series of drastic decisions made in recent days by NYC Health + Hospitals, and that seek, in addition to halting the spread of coronavirus, allow hospitals to have the greater number of beds available to receive those affected with the deadly disease.
In addition to public hospitals, another of the largest health systems in the entire Northeast of the country, the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, announced that it will cancel all surgeries that are not urgent and whose patients can wait without putting their lives at risk. To this is added the announcement of the NYU Langone Medical Center’s Tisch converting a pediatric emergency room into an adult respiratory room, and the Northwell Health, which has an extensive network of hospitals, which has asked retired nurses to return to work.
Other measures include, for example, preventing large numbers of hospital staff from going on vacation. Therefore, Mount Sinai since last week began requiring employees to seek prior approval before personal vacations, and the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Now he is urging workers to avoid traveling for any reason.
“I think our healthcare system can meet any challenge,” he recently told local media. Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents medical facilities throughout the region.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mitchell katz, CEO and President of the NYC Health + HospitalsHe said in the early days of the health crisis that “Wuhan got over it and did everything wrong, and New York City will come out of this better, certainly better than Wuhan,” referring to the city in China where it was first detected. once the coronavirus.
Hospitals in figures:
- There are 53,000 hospital beds throughout New York State.
- 3,200 beds are in intensive care units.
- 20,000 of the beds are in the Big Apple.
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