St. James Hospital halts elective surgeries to meet COVID demand, state order

St. James Hospital in Hornell is among 37 hospitals in New York halting elective health care to free up beds to handle surging COVID-19 cases under a state order taking effect Friday.

The move to temporarily suspend some hospitals' elective care, which spans from hip replacements to preventive screenings for diseases like cancer, is part of an executive order issued last week by Gov. Kathy Hochul. It applies to hospitals operating at below 10% staffed bed capacity.

Two other hospitals in the Southern Tier, UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City and UHS Delaware Valley in Walton, are on the list of facilities due to suspend elective care, according to the state Department of Health.

The Hornell hospital, which opened in early 2020, has 15 inpatient beds along with four observation beds. St. James recently added surge beds to meet the high demand of admissions.

St. James officials said the hospital "has temporarily paused" elective surgical procedures ahead of Friday's effective date for the state order and it will review the situation on a weekly basis.

“We have been running at well over 100% inpatient capacity for several weeks,” said Dr. Bilal Ahmed, St. James Hospital chief medical officer. “The vast majority of the COVID-positive inpatients are unvaccinated, and are seriously ill by the time they arrive at our emergency department and need to be admitted.”

St. James officials said the hospital will continue to perform emergency and urgent surgeries.

“The determination of the urgency of surgery is up to the discretion of the surgeon, in collaboration with the patient’s clinical team,” Bilal said. “We will evaluate frequently and adjust as our inpatient volumes and capacity fluctuate. Our goal and plan is to return to normal operations as soon as circumstances and resources allow.”

Bryan O’Donovan, St. James Hospital president and CEO, praised his team for their efforts.

“For the last twenty months, everyone at St. James has done an exemplary job of responding to new mandates, COVID surges, and staffing challenges,” he said. “We are so grateful for their dedication to our patients and the community.”

Based on state data and the concerns expressed by healthcare leaders across the state, the list of facilities forced to suspend elective surgeries could grow as hospitals struggle with staffing shortages and waves of COVID-19 patients.

The renewed pandemic threat is heightened across upstate counties, as hospitals from Rochester to Utica to Johnson City carry an outsized share of the more than 2,900 people hospitalized due to COVID statewide, records show.

“COVID hospitalizations are trending upward. The number of beds is going downward and that's a real problem for us,” Hochul said Monday during a briefing.

The executive order will be reassessed on Jan. 15. Hochul said hospitals that halt elective care could resume it before that date if they boost capacity.

Since early August, hospitals in New York have also lost about 4% of bed capacity, or about 1,580 beds. About 70% of the bed reductions hit upstate communities where comparatively lower vaccination rates, in part, fueled COVID hospitalizations, which were up 150% during the same span, Hochul added.

Hospital leaders, however, asserted bed capacity problems also stemmed from more than 33,000 medical workers leaving jobs due to Hochul’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, as well as long-standing staffing shortages worsened by the pandemic.

The list of hospitals expected to stop elective care also includes six in the Finger Lakes. They are:

• F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua

• Geneva General Hospital

• Highland Hospital in Rochester

• Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester

• Unity Hospital in Rochester

• Wyoming County Community Hospital in Warsaw

This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: St. James halts elective surgeries to comply with NYS COVID order