With surge in COVID inpatients, Suffolk’s hospital capacity dips below 20% this week

Suffolk County’s hospital capacity dropped below 20% this week for the first time in months, according to the Suffolk County health department.

COVID hospitalizations in Suffolk this week reached a level not seen here since early May, with 840 people in the hospital with the disease on Wednesday — a day when there were 114 new COVID hospital admissions.

However with the discharge of 113 patients and 68 new admissions on Thursday, total hospitalizations dropped to 791 — under 800 for the first time all week — and capacity popped back up to 20%.

Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead saw its COVID-19 patient census drop over the past week, from 65 COVID-positive patients on Monday to “the mid-40s” yesterday, according to PBMC Deputy Executive Director Amy Loeb. The number had been climbing steadily for several weeks. Loeb said she hopes the decrease is the beginning of a new trend, even though infection rates continue to rise locally.

Stony Brook Medicine, which includes Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital had 197 COVID-positive inpatients as of yesterday, hospital officials said. They did not provide a breakdown among the facilities in their system.

Hospitals across the state have worked to increase capacity by at least 25% in response to a directive from Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The governor last month announced a “surge and flex” policy to ensure that hospitals in New York State do not become overwhelmed by the rising number of COVID patients, as has been the experience in hospitals in other places this fall.

In addition to directing hospitals to increase bed capacity, the state is requiring hospitals and hospital systems to work cooperatively to “balance the load” among institutions — shifting patients from one hospital to another, to avoid a hospital becoming overwhelmed by COVID patients.

Hospitals have opened vacant units and repurposed space to care for coronavirus patients and other patients as well, officials say.

Hospital capacity in the Long Island region was 23% as of Thursday.

The governor has also put out a call for retired doctors, nurses and physicians assistants to volunteer for work to deal with the surge underway across the state.