STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) has been given the green light to immediately resume scheduling of elective outpatient surgeries and procedures.
Non-emergency medical procedures have been on hold on Staten Island since March 15, when Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order to postpone all elective surgeries in city hospitals. The following week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the same for elective procedures across the state.
Cuomo announced Monday that New York City is eligible to resume elective surgery and ambulatory care. Previously, he said non-essential procedures could only resume in counties and hospitals without risk of an immediate COVID-19 surge.
The state Department of Health (DOH) gave RUMC and all of its outpatient facilities the go-ahead on June 5, stating it has met all of the criteria and requirements for resuming non-essential procedures and surgeries.
Dr. Daniel Messina, president and CEO of RUMC, said the hospital submitted a request to resume to the state in late-April.
“Our immediate priority now will be to assess the emergent needs of our patients and our community so we can focus on the surgeries and procedures to resume the fastest,” Messina said.
“This will be accomplished collaboratively with input from hospital administration, our department chairs, nursing leadership and medical and clinical staff from our departments of surgery and anesthesia, among others,” he said.
Patients and staff will be required to wear CDC-compliant personal protective equipment (PPE) from pre-op through discharge. All patients will be tested for COVID-19 no more than three days prior and must receive a negative result prior to any surgery or procedure.
“We want all our patients to rest assured that we are strictly following all of the federal and state guidelines to ensure their safety and protection. We have taken extraordinary measures to ensure this at all of our sites and especially within our hospital, including creating a separate, isolated non-COVID-19 emergency department and complete patient floors designated for only non-COVID-19 patients,” Messina said.
SIUH TO RESUME NON-ESSENTIAL SURGERIES, PROCEDURES ON JUNE 15
Dr. Brahim Ardolic, executive director of SIUH, told the Advance/SILive.com that both the Ocean Breeze and Prince’s Bay campuses are slowly beginning to resume elective surgeries and procedures this week.
The plan is to be back to a full schedule by June 15, Ardolic said.
“It’s a soft launch; we’re looking to give accommodation time to our doctors and employees,” Ardolic said. “We were using 400 employees at the height of COVID-19 that need to go back to where they were previously working.”
Staff members are “really looking forward to going back to their jobs.”
The hospital is able to resume surgeries and procedures while ensuring all staff, and now patients, will have personal protective equipment (PPE).
It is also following Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mandate, which requires hospitals to leave at least 30% of beds available for a potential surge of coronavirus patients. SIUH has at least that, he said, adding that some beds are standard medical/surgical beds and others can be converted if necessary.
SIUH will continue to remain a COVID-19-contained facility, Ardolic said. Any patient that tests positive at the Prince’s Bay campus will be transferred to the Ocean Breeze campus if they require admission.
“It’s interesting because it’s almost like a relief. I really believe we’re here to take care of Staten Island and meet their needs. So for me, when we’re not doing that and we’re not replacing a joint or doing some kind of a surgery so a patient’s cancer doesn’t come back, when we’re not doing those things it’s like we’re not completing our mission,” he said.
“So it’s been a relief [to get to this point] and kind of been tinged; there’s a lot of sadness associated with this disease. I can’t tell you how many of our employees were affected by this. It’s a moment to reflect and look forward.”
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