- Only 6% of hospital beds were available in the Finger Lakes region recently.
- Rising illness, staffing shortages and nursing home backlogs have led to growing numbers of upstate NY hospital patients waiting for care or transferred to other communities.
A hospital capacity crisis is threatening parts of upstate New York as unseasonably early spikes in respiratory illnesses, staffing shortages and nursing home backlogs strain the region’s health care system.
Across the Finger Lakes, Central New York and Mohawk Valley, the percentage of hospital beds available last week hovered between 6% and 11% − well below the statewide average of 17% to 19%, state data show.
As a result, growing numbers of patients are stuck being treated in hospital hallways while awaiting rooms to free up. And, in some cases, regional health leaders are forced to transfer patients to hospitals hundreds of miles away to get sufficient care, hospital officials said.
Meanwhile, about 300 hospital beds in Monroe County are currently occupied by patients who are well and awaiting placement at area nursing homes, which is the main reason for the Finger Lakes’ capacity shortage, said Kathy Parrinello, chief operating officer at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
“It is not right for patients to continue to have to take care of them in hallways because our hospitals have patients that should be moved to a nursing home,” she said, asserting the care delivered in hospital hallways remains safe and effective despite the lack of a room.
What is New York doing about hospital capacity?
The hospital capacity crunch evoked memories of the pandemic’s darkest days. During the past two winters, state officials halted elective surgeries to free up hospital beds for COVID-19 patients and deployed the National Guard to shore up hospital staffing.
But Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has yet to impose similar measures this fall, despite the fact current conditions at some hospitals would have triggered elective surgery suspensions under prior pandemic metrics.
Instead, Hochul has said state health officials monitor hospital capacity issues and would consider taking action if conditions worsen. She also touted various measures in the state budget that aim to boost the health care workforce.
Meanwhile, some upstate hospital officials said they already voluntarily cut back on elective care, as declining revenues and skyrocketing labor costs deepened long-standing struggles to hire and retain enough medical workers.
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State and local officials have also approved spending $13 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to subsidize Finger Lakes-area nursing homes that agree to take additional residents and pay for worker training to help plug staffing shortages, Parrinello said.
The subsidy program begins Nov. 1, she added, noting the rollout must make a dent in nursing home backlogs quickly considering an expected surge in hospitalizations this winter.
Regional state task forces also work with health providers to monitor the strain on hospitals and transfer patients when necessary. State health officials on Thursday said they could not provide data on the number of hospital patient transfers, and USA TODAY Network submitted a public-records request for the information.
Yet to understand the ongoing impact of bed shortages, consider Strong Memorial Hospital typically takes in 500 patient transfers per month, mostly from other smaller hospitals in the region.
But in recent months that figure has dropped to about 400 patients per month, leaving hundreds of patients searching for alternative care.
How many COVID patients, RSV cases in NY hospitals?
Rising numbers of likely COVID-19 patients also contributed to the hospital capacity crunch, with a roughly 25% spike in hospitalizations statewide over the past month.
The weekly tally of likely COVID-19 patients in New York totaled 4,237 for the week ending Oct. 16, up from 3,364 a month prior, a USA TODAY Network analysis of federal hospital data shows.
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The rise in hospitalizations underscored COVID-19 remained a threat, despite underreporting of cases amid widespread use of at-home tests that masks the true infection rate.
Further, the flu season and outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and other respiratory illnesses have bucked historic trends this year. And the “early and aggressive” spread of flu this fall prompted warnings from health officials.
So far this fall, New York reported a five-week average of 133 confirmed RSV cases, slightly behind last year’s pace but well above 2020, when RSV and flu cases hit historic lows due to measures intended to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Why NY nursing homes, hospitals staffing shortages linger
Bea Grause, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, representing dozens of hospitals statewide, described the current state measures targeting hospital capacity and nursing home backlogs as long-term solutions to an increasingly urgent program.
“There is no one solution, quite frankly, to solve the challenges that hospitals are facing with a relentless pandemic and a national workforce shortage,” she said.
The hospital group, Grause added, is pushing in part for the state to distribute this year’s Medicaid funds sooner to nursing homes to boost staffing. It also seeks future reforms to ensure Medicaid reimbursements cover the cost of care at hospitals and nursing homes.
Meanwhile, state officials, nursing home operators and labor unions are locked in heated political and legal fights over nursing home staffing levels.
The battle involves the long-delayed enforcement of a 2021 state law that established staffing minimums and resident-care spending levels for nursing homes.
State officials this fall have taken steps to potentially begin enforcement of the law, despite ongoing lawsuits and concerns raised by unions that the final regulations contain loopholes and lack sufficient penalties.
Still, hospital and nursing home officials have asserted heated national competition for medical workers as well as pandemic burnout complicate efforts to curb staffing shortages.
Rochester Regional Health officials noted Thursday that workers in New York and nationally “are still opting to leave their community to accept alternate employment with temp agencies offering significantly higher rates of pay.”
That concern is hitting a group of 52 hospitals across upstate, which reported spending on contingent staffing, such as travel nurses, has spiked 50% from last year.
These hospitals expect to spend more than $1.2 billion this year on contingent staffing, noting the cost could trigger even deeper service cuts for patients next year.
