At one point in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, employees at New York’s largest hospital network were forced to shop at garden hose hardware stores to make the fans they received from the state actually work, according to a new book.
This experience and many others resulted in Northwell Health seeking to buy its own medical supply company so that it would never again have to rely on China or other governments for vital goods such as valves, scrubs and masks.
“We should never have less than a robust supply of ventilators and other essential equipment … Overtrust on China to make vital deliveries is a dangerous gamble,” Northwell Health Director Michael Dowling wrote in Leading Through a Pandemic. “
“We at Northwell Health are considering getting a supply company to achieve a measure of self-sufficiency when it comes to vital deliveries.”
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The newly published 187-page book – co-written by Dowling and Northwell’s lead journalist / editor – is thought to be the first major book written by frontline medical providers addressing the devastating effects of the killer bug confronted on New York, 32,000 lives.
Northwell’s network of 23 hospitals treats about 70,000 coronavirus patients – more than anywhere else in the country.
This undated photo provided by Vyaire Medical, Inc. shows in VELA fan. U.S. hospitals that protect themselves from a possible attack of coronavirus patients with pneumonia and other respiratory problems could have a critical shortage of mechanical ventilators and health care workers to serve them. (Ken Hansen / Vyaire Medical, Inc. via AP)
But employees were plagued by a dire lack of medical equipment, so much so that “Even when we were in need of ventilators from New York State, many came without parts needed to make them functional,” execs wrote.
“At one point, our employees went to hardware stores to buy garden hoses that they cut and hung so that valves would work.”
Northwell staff also used 3D-printed parts to help fashion easy breathing machines and nasal swabs test patients for COVID-19, the book says.
The oversupply of foreign companies extended to pharmaceutical drugs, Northwell officials said, suggesting this was a serious national security issue.
“The U.S. military has not outsourced its bulletings to China,” said Dr. Kevin Tracey, CEO of Northwell’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.
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The hospital network’s strategy to monitor its future regarding personal protective equipment is just one aspect of the book, which examines the lessons it has learned during the height of the virus outbreak.
Northwell officials said they have been investigating the possibility since May and that there have been ongoing talks with private manufacturers.
“We have talks with a few companies. You can not depend on people abroad for supplies when you are in the middle of a war, ‘Dowling told The Post on Sunday.
The tome makes 13 recommendations on how to better prepare for a future disaster – one is that the government should repeal or revise existing rules so that medical staff have more flexibility to respond to public health crises.
Fortunately, said Northwell, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and federal health officials had this time deviated from many regulations and laws, which exempted physicians and hospitals from medical malpractice packages and made it easier to convert space into COVID treatment- units.
Other proposals include protecting the physical and emotional needs of staff, expanding partnerships with other hospital systems across the country and accelerating the movement for telehealth care.
The book sheds light on the controversy surrounding the 6,500 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes in New York.
Northwell officials generally call for better security measures in ‘municipal institutions’ such as nursing homes.
“There was too much death in these facilities and we have work to prepare for safer municipal environments,” she wrote.
The book also describes how the virus depletes staff. At one time, 3,500 workers were quarantined for infection or exposure to the virus, including more than 20 percent at hospitals in the harsh Forest Hills and Valley Stream.
Northwell said it had hired thousands of visiting health care professionals and re-installed 2,750 staff, which included mandatory ordering when the worst hit of the pandemic.
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The virus also took a financial toll, costing Northwell $ 1.2 billion in lost revenue and added costs. But the provider said it paid bonuses to frontline workers for their heroic work and said it would later worry about the financial bill.
In addition to planning a future pandemic, the book delves into stories of heroism and heartbeat from the front.
At Lenox Hill Hospital, for example, one nurse played the US Navy version of The Star Spangled Banner on her iPhone to relatives of a veteran who said her last goodbye.
Not everyone was lucky enough to have their family close by when the moment came.
A worker at Staten Island University Hospital describes in the book how he chose to stay at work instead of making his three-hour trek home to Yonkers, just to make sure a patient would not die alone.
“It will always be with me,” wrote John Baez, “the sorrow that she could not have a loved one with her, but I could not die her alone.”
The book describes how Long Island Jewish Forest Hills was so overwhelmed by the pandemic that 423 COVID patients were transferred to their other hospitals over a four-week period – and 17 people died in one day in March at Queens Hospital.
“Staff were shocked,” the book states.
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In one wry episode, a woman with the virus gave birth at LIJ Forest Hills and then died. Her husband has also been infected with the virus, and has just given birth to her.
“In normal times, that would have been such a tragic story that our teams would have talked about it and a little bit differently,” the book states, “but in the crisis, it was just a different story.”
“Those at the forefront of the crisis are likely to reckon with the impact of their experiences, and of the many heartbreaking losses for a long time.”
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