In mid-March, as New York State became the epicenter of the pandemic, Governor Cuomo halted elective surgeries statewide to ensure there were enough hospital beds, personal protective equipment (PPE) and clinical staff available to handle the surge of COVID-19 cases. Stony Brook Medicine immediately canceled all non-essential procedures to enable us to care for our community during the height of the pandemic, while preserving the health and safety of our staff, patients and visitors.
Since that time, New York State (NYS) has made significant progress in decreasing the rate of new COVID-19 infections, and by executive order in late April, the governor outlined a plan for resuming elective surgeries and procedures across the state, based on a regional approach. Hospitals in Suffolk County became eligible to resume elective surgeries in late May; however, the planning at Stony Brook Medicine was already well underway.
Stony Brook Medicine resumed these procedural services as smoothly and safely as possible to meet the comprehensive healthcare needs of our community. Our leadership team worked together to prioritize the canceled cases based on patient clinical needs. We carefully reviewed the daily schedules to ensure patients requiring an inpatient bed could be safely admitted to the appropriate units for specialized care. We validated that the proper clinical and ancillary staff were in place to support caseloads and confirmed PPE was in place daily to continue operations throughout the hospital. We converted the Ambulatory Surgery Center and Endoscopy units back from intensive care units and resumed regular operations over the course of several weeks.
State guidelines require us to test all scheduled patients within five days of their procedure. We have expanded the days and hours of our Pre-Operative Services location to support these additional cases and ensure all cases, including those in endoscopy and radiology, are appropriately screened. We are now running full Operating Room schedules, with some elective cases on weekends to address the surgical demand.
June was an amazing month of recovery, and the revamping of procedural services proved extremely successful. Surgical case volume was up almost 10 percent over June 2019. Patients and staff have all felt safe and comfortable returning, and we expect this success will continue through the Fall.
As we witnessed during the height of the pandemic, working together as a community, our flexibility and perseverance truly paid off. Stony Brook Medicine’s approach to COVID-19 care was thoughtful, determined and deliberate. In true team fashion, our surgical team assisted in caring for COVID-19 patients during the hiatus in elective procedures, assisting our medical team, including our hospitalists and pulmonologists. In fact, our entire team of clinical and non-clinical staff stepped up to the plate to provide care and meet the challenges of this unprecedented situation.
We have now resumed operations in all areas and are prepared to respond should an additional patient surge occur. Collectively, as a team, we can achieve incredible success. Thanks to everyone for your dedication and commitment to fulfilling Stony Brook Medicine’s patient care mission.
Carol