Hospitals buckling under multiple crises

That Garnet Health Medical Center — Catskills has been looking to temporarily close its critical care unit is sure to become a regular refrain from hospitals across upstate and rural New York. Our hospitals are buckling under the weight of a never-ending pandemic, an ever-growing staffing crisis — so bad that calling it a “crisis” dramatically understates the problem — and a new and foreverchanged cost structure, for which the billions of dollars in the state budget remain elusive.

This is all happening on top of staffing-ratio and clinical-staffing committee laws that are ill conceived and poorly timed. Without an immediate and robust infusion of cash, we will begin to see an overabundance of stories like this one in Sullivan County.

Faced with reduced numbers of overtaxed staff, lack of a pipeline for new staff, illogically burdensome regulations, and few prospects for meaningful relief, New York’s upstate and rural hospitals have no choice but to limit and close down services, whether temporarily or permanently.

In its most recent survey of upstate hospitals, the Iroquois Healthcare Association found that the current average vacancy rate for all hospital staffing positions sits at about 14 percent. This is more than double the rate that was experienced in 2018 prepandemic.

It should come as no surprise to anyone, in the face of these monumental challenges, and a continuing and critical need for financial assistance, that hospitals are faced with difficult decisions. Without help, hospitals will have to limit or eliminate the services communities rely on. Gary Fitzgerald

Clifton Park President and CEO, Iroquois Healthcare

Association