Wynn Hospital: Officials say 'rumors, misinformation, lies' scaring public
Mohawk Valley Health System officials are being very clear: there is a threat to health care in Utica.
But they say it does not come from the state-of-the-art care being offered at Wynn Hospital, which opened in downtown Utica on Oct. 29. It comes from the “rumors, misinformation and, let’s call it what it is, lies” being spread on social media and through the local rumor mill, said long-time MVHS board member Judge Norman Siegel at a press conference Nov. 6 to address the rumors.
The result has been that some people were scared to come to the Wynn for care, according to social media posts and stories told by emergency medical service workers and hospital staff. Officials said they did not know whether any emergency patients had delayed care or asked an ambulance to take them to a more distant hospital.
Siegel blamed disgruntled employees and opponents of building the hospital downtown. They’re scaring people and drawing into question the competence of the Wynn’s health care staff, he said.
“You, you are the ones responsible for harming our community,” he said. “You, you are the ones who’ve done nothing to advance health care and improve our community.”
The negative messages on social media have been countered by people, many of them MVHS workers, writing with excitement about moving to the new hospital. The hospital is changing the community and offering state-of-the-art health care, President/CEO Darlene Stromstad stressed.
“This is a great organization in a great community and together we have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have this new hospital.”
Air handling issue at Wynn led to a lot of hot air online
The Wynn Hospital did encounter one snag shortly before opening, which accelerated the spread of misinformation. A test done on Oct. 27 once everything was fully in place in the operating rooms showed that the second-floor air handling system was not calibrated correctly for the air pressure needed in the ORs and the cardiac catheterization lab, which is also on the second floor.
So to keep patients safe, officials announced on Oct. 28 that patients needing surgery or cardiac catheterization would be diverted to other hospitals until the problem was fixed and that elective surgeries, already put on hold for a few days around the move into the new hospital, would be delayed a little longer.
In total, 47 patients were diverted to other hospitals in just over a week, 13 of whom would have been sent to a different hospital anyway, Stromstad said.
If any patient needed emergency surgery, though, it could be done in two trauma rooms on the first floor or two C-section rooms on the fourth floor.
The air pressure system has since been adjusted and the Wynn can now offer surgery and cardiac catheterization without diverting patients, President/CEO announced late Monday afternoon.
“We are fully open for business,” Stromstad said.
Asked about the rumors and, in particular, an anonymous letter sent out to local media by someone claiming to by a “provider” for MVHS, the New York State Department of Health just released a statement saying, “As this matter is currently under review, the department is not commenting at this point.”
Officials would not clarify what specifically “this matter” is referring to.
Here is the information provided by MVHS officials to contradict the myriad rumors, including about the air handling system:
There was never an air quality issue on the second floor. The problem is simply with air pressure.
The test that found the problem could not have been done any earlier because the operating rooms had to be fully set up with all the equipment in place.
MVHS officials had to make a decision very quickly on what to do about the air test result. Both existing hospitals were in the process of being dismantled. The details of the closing of the hospitals on the St. Elizabeth and St. Lukes campuses and opening of the Wynn Hospital in one day — with the transfer of 226 patients — were being planned by consultant Health Care Relocations, which has helped more than 500 hospitals move. If opening day had been pushed back, HCR staff couldn’t have helped with the move for another three months.
The New York State Department of Health gave approval for the plan to open Wynn Hospital and divert surgery and catheterization patients.
Hospital services are completely interdependent so it would not have been safe to leave cardiac and trauma services at St. Elizabeth while moving everything else to the Wynn.
One patient needed emergency surgery while the ORs were out of service and had the surgery in a first-floor trauma room.
Patient transfers are a normal part of hospital life with MVHS typically doing at least one a day even before the new hospital opened. MVHS can handle about 85 percent of patients' medical needs, but some patients, most often children, need to go a hospital with a more advanced level of care.
MVHS called seven CEOs of other hospitals in the region to explain the diversion before it happened and they all offered to provide whatever help was needed.
MVHS and HCR spent more than a year planning moving day and carefully working out every detail. “And it went exactly as we predicted it would,” Stromstad said.
The Wynn’s fourth floor is a maternity unit with two operating rooms where C-sections can be performed. The first baby was born there at 3:16 p.m. on Oct. 30, Luna Rae Williams, first child of Brianna Kolupa and Ryan Williams Jr.
There is no mold in the hospital.
Hospital stairwells are kept locked as a security precaution. Staff can go down the stairs, but they can only get out on the first floor; the doors on the other landings are locked. Some of the floors are confidential with only approved visitors and personnel allowed. In case of fire, the doors will automatically unlock. If there is a code and a patient needs emergency care, staff with the proper badges will be able to use the stairs and all doors to get to the patient faster.
Just five days after the new hospital opened, it was evaluated and received accreditation from DNV as a comprehensive stroke center, the highest level of accreditation available for stroke care. Emergency room physician Dr. Maxime Berube called the achievement “amazing” just after a major move.
More: Wynn Hospital officially opens
More: What to know about the Wynn Hospital as MVHS prepares for opening in October
Stromstad did acknowledge one other issue that cropped up on opening day. “People were angry the first night,” she said, “because not every television worked.”
Berube said he hasn’t talked to any employees who seem disgruntled or who believe the misinformation. “We’re all excited,” he said, “to be in the new facility.”
Siegel had some advice for area residents. “Tune out this idle chatter and ugly rumor mongering,” he said. “You have always been able to rely on us.”
To which Stromstad added, “You can trust your health care to the Wynn Hospital.”
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Rumors question safety of Wynn Hospital; MVHS officials counter 'lies'
