Mayor picks Island hotel for hospital workers exposed to COVID-19 to later use as 'de facto’ hospital

Bill de Blasio

Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, with Dr. Oxiris Barbot, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, listens to a reporter's question as he reports on the city's preparedness for the potential spread of the coronavirus in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. There are no known cases of COVID-19 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)AP

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Mayor Bill de Blasio has found a hotel on Staten Island to house healthcare workers who have been exposed to the coronavirus so they can safely stay away from their families during the outbreak, he said Friday.

The mayor did not elaborate on which hotel he selected, but said that once the city opens those hotels to Island healthcare workers, it could quickly turn them into “de facto” hospitals to find more hospital capacity on Staten Island.

“As the needs on Staten Island grow, if [hotels] needed to be converted into something where we’re providing direct healthcare and turning into a de facto hospital, we can do that, and again, we will keep expanding into hotels, and into other public spaces in every borough including Staten Island to match whatever the need is, as it grows, we’re going to keep adding,” de Blasio told reporters during a press conference Friday.

His announcement followed the Island getting left out of the city’s public hospitals’ surge plan it rolled out earlier this week because the Island is not part of the Health + Hospitals system.

The latest plan to expand hospital capacity on Staten Island comes as the Island’s two private hospitals could be at about half of their capacity.

Under the city’s current approach, the mayor said hospitals would be converted to ICU beds and then additional facilities like field hospitals, hotels and other venues would be built out for additional capacity

De Blasio said both of the Island’s two private hospitals Richmond University Medical Center and Staten Island University Hospital would need to increase their intensive care unit capacity “constantly.”

Last week, the heads of the Island’s two private hospitals told the Advance they are able to expand to 829 ICU and general hospital beds combined under its surge capacity.

At RUMC, the hospital said last week it is working to significantly increase its ICU beds from 26 to 71. The hospital is also working to ramp up its medical surge beds capacity from 128 to 239 general hospital beds, for a total of 310 beds.

RUMC ASKS FOR MORE STAFF IN ORDER TO EXPAND HOSPITAL CAPACITY

On Friday, RUMC said its expansion to 71 ICU beds was still the gameplan but stressed the hospital would need more staff in order to expand its capacity.

“If the mayor wants the hospitals, not just ours but hospitals across the city, to continue to increase … it’s going to come down to staffing,” said RUMC spokesman Alexander Lutz. “So our hope is that if the mayor wants hospitals to increase capacity bed wise, we’re hoping that the city will be able to help us with staffing.”

De Blasio said earlier on Friday he asked for 1,000 nurses, 150 doctors, 300 respiratory therapists by Sunday from the federal government.

At SIUH, the hospital said last week it has the ability to double its current 72 ICU bed capacity and increase its 250 general hospital beds by 50% at the moment, for a total of 519 beds.

SIUH would not say whether it was expanding to more ICU beds compared to the number of beds it told the Advance about the week before when asked on Friday. SIUH only said it had the capacity to care for its general hospital patients as they look for other areas that can be converted to treat coronavirus patients.

De Blasio also said the city would be “constantly resupplying” both of the hospitals.

Previously de Blasio said the city gave supplies to the Island’s two private hospitals.

But the Department of Health does not provide a breakdown of the supplies the city distributes to local hospitals and the Island’s two private hospitals have not detailed how many of those supplies it has received from the city to date.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.

RELATED COVERAGE:

EMTs to stop taking patients in cardiac arrest to hospitals if resuscitation isn’t successful

Crime down, except for burglaries, across NYC amid coronavirus shutdown

Staten Island healthcare facilities to receive funding to battle coronavirus

Data analysis: Three weeks in, how the coronavirus has spread in our borough

Data shows which Staten Island zip codes have the most coronavirus cases

Cuomo: New York could see 16,000 deaths resulting from coronavirus

Navy hospital ship Comfort docks in Manhattan at front line of coronavirus pandemic

In addition to hospital beds, the USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) is equipped with a dozen operating rooms and laboratory facilities.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.